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O N O •' <^' 



s -^ - r 



CONCORD 




•s of Interest. 



Illustrations ct 

Houses 

of 

Historical and 

Literary Interest. 
The Rivers, 

The Monuments, 

Walclen Pond, 

The Library, 

and many other 

Points of Interest. 



D. LoTHROP & Co., Publishers, Boston. 




MR. FRENCH'S BUST OF EMERSON. 



THE CONCORDE- 



GUIDE BOOK. 



EDITED BY 

GEORGE B. BARTLETT. 



ILLUSTRATIONS BY 

Miss L. B. Humphrey and Robert Lewis. 



OF CCi^G^ 







'^^y. 



i-' \K'\ 



BOSTON 
D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY, 

FRANKLIN STREET, CORNER OF HAWLEY. 






^i.r 



COPYRIGHT BY 

D, LOTHROP & CO, 
1880. 



Press of Rockwell and Churchill 
39 Arch St., Bostrm. 



PR EFACE. 



This is not a history but a simple Guide Book by which a pilgrim 
can find his way to all the objects of interest in Concord. For this 
reason only places which still exist are mentioned and the persons and 
legends connected with them. If any critic is not satisfied that a Guide 
Book to this village is needed, he can stand on the common any fine 
day and answer questions until he is satisfied. To those who find 
it too full of praise, the author respectfully replies that when a per- 
son is not proud of his native place his native place is seldom proud 
of him. 

Thanks are due to Mrs. Rose Hawthorne Lathrop for her account 
of her father's home ; to Mrs. Delano Goddard for her Voyage on 
the Assabet ; to Miss Munroe for her Memoir of the Founder of the 
Library ; to Mrs. W. S. Robinson for her Memoir of " Warrington " 
to W. W. Wheildon Esq. for the articles on Walden Pond, the Con- 
cord Grape, and the Masonic Institutions ; to Mr. A. Munroe for the 
history of the Library, the Water Supply and the Curiosity Shop; to 
Mr. S. R. Bartlett for the sketch of Daniel Chester French and his 
studio, and to F. M. Holland Esq, for " The Clubs." 

Full credit also should be given to Rev. G. Reynolds, and to F. B. 
Sanborn Esq. for quotations from their writing's as well as to Shattuck's 
History, the Diary of Rev. Wm. Emerson, and the Pamphlets of Rev. 
Dr. Ripley, and others. 

G. B. B. 

Co7icord, Mass. 

5 



INDEX. 



Page. 

Alcott Family 67 

Artillery, Concord 117 

Bank, Concord . . 119 

Battle Ground 27 

Brown, Lieut. Governor 151 

Burying Grounds 13 

Carnival of Boats 156 

Centennial Celebration 152 

Churches 11 

Clubs 121 

Concord Grape 114 

Early History . . 10 

Free Public Library 90 

French, Hon. PL F 155 

French's Studio 107 

PIawthorne 58 

Hemlocks 149 

Hoar, Hon. Samuel 65 

Hoar, Judge E. R 66 

Home of Emerson 48 

Houses of Historical Interest 36 

Houses of Literary^ Interest 48 

Hudson, Frederic . . ^ S4 

7 



8 Index. 

Institution of Masonry ii8 

Manse 53 

Middlesex Fire Insurance Co 112 

Monuments 99 

Monroe, W 87 

Old Curiosity Shop 109 

Orchard House Kid 

Ripley, Dr 56 

Rivers and Their Surroundings 142 

Robinson, W. S 80 

Sanborn, F. B 78 

School of Philosophy 124 

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery 18 

Social Circle . . 121 

Thoreau . . 60 

Walden Pond 136 

Wayside 58 

Wheildon, W. W 82 



THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 



CHAPTER I. 



EARLY HISTORY, CHURCHES AND BURYING GROUNDS. 

Passengers for Concord, Mass., can take the cars in 
Boston by way of the Fitchburg or Boston and Lowell Rail 
Roads, which are near each other on Causeway street. Com- 
ing from New York by rail or steamboat via Fall River or New 
Haven, or from the West by Boston and Albany road, they 
can connect at South Framingham, or from the East and North 
at Ayer Junction. At the Concord depot carriages are always 
in readiness to convey tourists to all objects of interest in and 
about the town, to which this little book endeavors to call their 

9 



10 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

attention by i^ivino- a glance at the history, legends, and litera- 
tnre whicli liave rendered the phice somewhat noted. 

The Town of Concord, probably so named from the peace- 
I'lil manner of its pnrehase, was settled by a company of about 
a dozen families, most of whom came directl}' from England for 
that purpose, having been encouraged in this plan by a traveller 
who visited the sjjot in the year IGoo. These pilgrims endured 
great hardships in their passage from tide water to this spot, 
being compelled to wade through deep swamps and penetrate 
with great difficulty through tangled thickets. " They suffered 
greatly from the loss of their cattle which died in great numbers 
from change of diet and climate. The Indian name of the set- 
tlement was Musket-a-quid or the Grass-Grown River, and the 
broad meadows Ivino- for manv miles alone^ tlie river were oreat- 
ly esteemed by their aboriginal owners as hunting grounds and 
corn fields; but a peaceful purchase was made abont the year 
1637, the transaction having occurred, according to a legend, 
nnder a great tree called Jethro's Oak, which stood near the 
present site of the Middlesex Hotel. The savage in-ojirietors 
seemed to have been well disposed and friendly to the new 
comers who labored earnestly for their conversii)n and improve- 
ment. The apostle Eliot olYen preached to them, and throuoh 
his inlluence, abont the year 1(556, a large company of praying 
Indians existed, who cultivated the land and had an excellent 
code of laws, a copy v>i which is still extant. During the next 
twenty years the good feeling originally existing between the 
English and Indians seems to have gradually given place to the 



EARLY HISTORY, CHURCHES AND BURYING GROUNDS 



II 



most bitter animosity, and Concord soon became a military post 
and a centre of warlike operations, from which parties were 
constantly sent ont to the relief of neighboring villao-es, and for 
the punishment of the enemy. 

During Philip's War several block houses were maintained, 
one of which tradition locates on the present site of the house 
of Dr. Barrett, one near Merriam's Corner, and one near 
the residence of Mr. Lewis Flint. 

Several Indians convicted of the crime of murder and arson 
were executed in the town, and also one white man for the 
murder of an Indian. Tlic general prejudice against the sav- 
ages extended also to tlie praying Indians, a small party of 
whom were living here under the protection of Mr. John Hoar, 
who had built a building for them to use as a residence and 
workshop ; and one Sunday a company of soldiers from Boston 
entered the town and demanded them, and they were saved 
with great difficuhy by the courage and determination of their 
guardian. It is stated tliat before proceeding to attack these 
inoffensive Indians, the soldiers decorously attended public 
worship, and waited until after service before stating the object 
of their mission. 

The Old Church stood near the site of tlie present Unita- 
rian liouse of worship, which was built on the old frame, so that 
it contains the same timbers as the one in which the first Pro- 
vincial Congress was held, on the fourteenth of October, 1774, 
of which John Hancock was chosen president. In this assembly 
were made those stirring speeches by himself, Adams, and other 
patriots, which did so much to hasten the events of the Revolu- 



12 



THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 



tion. The church was organized at Cambridge, in 1636, and in 
1637 the Rev. Peter Bulkeley and John Jones were chosen as 
the teacher and the pastor. In this organization, like most 
of those under two heads, some difficulty seems to have arisen, 
and a part of the congregation seceded for a time, and some of 
the people followed Mr. Jones on his subsequent removal from 







FIRST CHURCH. 



the town. Mr. Bulkeley came from noble ancestry, was renowned 
as a finished scholar and gentleman, and expended his means 
and strength for his town and church with a liberalitj' only 
equalled by his piet}'. He died universally lamented, March 
9th, 1659, at which time his son, the Rev. Edward, was in- 
stalled in his place. The Rev. Joseph Esterbrook, Rev. Mr. 
Whiting, and Rev. Mr. Bliss successively succeeded him. 
After them came the eloquent divine and fearless patriot. Rev. 



EARLY HISTORY, CHURCHES AND BURYING GROUNDS. 13 

William Emerson, who preached for ten years, when he gave 
his life to the service of his country. The Rev. Ezra Ripley 
succeeded to the church and home of Mr. Emerson, whose 
widow he married. Of both of the two last-named divines, 
an account will be found in another place. The Rev. H. B. 
Goodwin and the Rev. B. Frost were both colleaofues of 
Dr. Ripley, the latter being pastor of the church after him, in 
which position he was succeeded by the present incumbent, 
Rev. G. Reynolds, who has identified himself with the history 
of this town, writing many valuable historical papers and 
books. 

The Congregational Church, under the charge of the Rev. 
Henry M. Grout, is situated on the street behind the Old 
Church, and was organized June 5, 1826. 

The Catholic Church, which is in a flourishing condition, 
occupies a fine site on the public square. 

The Old Hill Burying Ground stands directly behind 
the Catholic Church. The date of its opening is unknown, and 
the location of no older one can be ascertained. The oldest 
stone in this ground is probably the monument to Joseph 
Merriam, who died the twentieth of April, 1677 ; and the most 
celebrated epitaph is that of John Jack, an old slave who died 
in town in 1773. This has been widely copied at home and 
abroad as a curious specimen of antithesis, and it is usually 
attributed to the pen of Daniel Bliss. The stone, which has 
been renewed, stands at the northerl}^ corner of the yard, and a 
well-worn track leads to it from the main path. The inscrip- 
tion is here copied in full : 



14 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

God wills us free, man wills us slaves, 

I will as God wills ; God's will be done. 

Here lies the body of 

JOHN JACK 

A native of Africa, who died 

March 1773 aged about sixty years. 

Though born in a land of slavery. 

He was born free. 

Though he lived in a land of liberty. 

He lived a slave ; 

Till by his honest though stolen labors, 

He acquired the source of slavery, 

Which gave him his freedom : 

Though not long before 

Death the grand tyrant, 

Gave him his final emancipation. 

And put him on a footing with kings. 

Though a slave to vice, 

He practised those virtues, 

Without which kings are but slaves. 

On the first wliite stone which was pkiced in tliis cemetery is 
this inscription, curious as showing the date when white marble 
superseded the common shite ; 

This stone is designed 

by its durability 

to perpetuate the memory, 

and by its colour 

to signify the moral character, 

of 
MISS ABIGAIL DUDLEY. 




OLD HILL BURYING GROUND. 



EARLY HISTORY, CHURCHES AND BURIAL GROUNDS. 17 

Who died Jan 4, 181 2, 
aged 7T,. 

In the same yard is this beautiful epitaph : 

"VIVENS 
DILECTISSIMA." 

ORPHA BRYANT. 

Born December 24 1797, 
Died October i, 1798. 

She was the joy of her father, 
and the delight of her mother, 

MORTUA LACHRYMABILLIMA. 

In this 3'ai'd is the grave of Major John Buttrick, who led the 
fight at the old North Bridge. He lies at the head of a large 
family, which includes his son who accompanied him as fifer, 
both these facts being properly noted on their gravestones, 
which may be seen near the crest of the hill by the side of the 
small magazine, in which the powder is kept for the village stores. 
Very near are the graves of the lamented pastors of the town, 
including: that of the Rev. William Emerson as shown in the 
picture. It was probably near tliis spot that Col. Smith 
and Maj. Pitcairn, who commanded the British on the day of 
the Fight, stood to review the movements of their troops en- 
gaged in various parts of the town, and to watch the Ameri- 
cans as the}^ assembled from various quarters. On the same 
hill a hundred rods farther south, was the Liberty Pole erected 
by the patriots, which was cut down by the British on the morn- 
ing of the battle. By the side of the tomb of Rev. William 



i8 



THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 




TOMB OF REV. WIL- 
'•■*• LIAM EMERSON. 



Emerson is tliat of John Beatton, 
an eccentric and frugal Scotcliman 
vvlio accumulated a large fortune 
and made a liberal bequest to the 
church wliich still goes by the 
name of the Beatton fund and is 
annually devoted to pious uses. 

The Burial Ground on Main 
Street was, according to tradition, 
the gift of two maiden ladies. In 
1Y75 the road probabl}- went around 
the back side of it, and across the 
upper end, for which reason most 
of the stones face the west, toward 
what was then the principal street. The oldest stone is that 
of Thomas Hartshorn, who died Nov. 17, 1697 ; and no other 
one appears there until 1713. 

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery was purchased by the town, of 
the heirs of Reuben Brown, in 1855, and was laid out according 
to plans furnished by Morris Copeland, Esq, 

The architect has followed, wisely, the natural form of the 
ground, and left undisturbed the amphitheatre which has existed 
for years in the center, and w^hich had borne the name of Sleepy 
Hollow long before it was thought of as a place of burial. On 
tlie nineteenth of April, 1856, a tree-bee was organized, and 
over an hundred trees were set out in a single day by the citi- 
zens, each one of whom thus brought his own memorial. The 
ladies held two festivals in the same year to raise money for 



EARLY HISTORY, CHURCHES AND BURYING GROUNDS. 19 

seats and decorations. The oration at the dedication was deliv- 
ered by Emerson, and an ode by F. B. Sanborn was sung, which 
is copied here from '' Parnassus." 

Shine kindly forth, September sun, 

From heavens calm and clear. 
That no untimely cloud may run 

Before thy golden sphere, 
To vex our simple rites to-day 

With one prophetic tear. 

With steady voices let us raise 

The fitting" psalm and prayer ; 
Remembered grief of other days 

Breathes softening in the air : 
Who knows not Death — who mourns no loss — 

He has with us no share. 

To holy sorrow, solemn joy. 

We consecrate the place 
Where soon shall sleep the maid and boy. 

The father and his race. 
The mother with her tender babe, 

The venerable face. 

These waving woods, these valleys low, 

Between these tufted knolls, 
Year after year shall dearer grow 

To many loving souls ; 
And flowers be sweeter here than blow 

Elsewhere between the poles. 



20 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

For deathless Love and blessed Grief 

Shall guard these wooded aisles, 
When either Autumn casts the leaf, 

Or blushing Summer smiles, 
Or Winter whitens o'er the land. 

Or Spring the buds uncoils. 

Many of the most marked graves are on The Ridge. 
Ascending the hill by Ridge Path, at the Avest, N^athaniel 
Hawthorne's grave is seen, surrounded by a low hedge of arbor 
vitce, as if the gifted author sought in death the modest retire- 
ment which he loved in life. His eloquent epitaph consists 
only of his name on a plain white stone. 

The grave of Thoreau is just behind, Avitli a common red 
stone ; and by his side lies his brother John, whose genius 
might have outslione that of the poet, philosopher, and natural- 
ist, had not he died in its first flush. 

A little farther on, past the graves of Nathan Brooks and 
John M. Chene}', citizens whose worth and virtue have caused 
their names to be honored forever by their townsmen, may be 
seen the Whiting monument, a copy of the Brewster monu- 
ment at Plymouth, and that of Col. George L. Prescott, the 
patriot martyr who fell in response to his country's earliest call 
for help. 

A plain brown slab commemorates in a Latin verse Mrs. 
Samuel Ripley, whose classical attainments have been chron- 
icled in the Centennial book bv the lovinof hand of another of 
the most gifted women that our country ever knew. 

In the center of the same lot is the monument to her son. 



ia 



? 




EARLY HISTORY, CHURCHES AND BURYING GROUNDS. 23 

Lieut. Ezra Ripley, a portion of whose epitaph is here copied : 

Of the best Pilgrim stock, 

descended from officers in the Revolutionary army 

and from a long line of the ministers of Concord, 

he was worthy of his lineage. 

An able and successful lawyer, 

he gave himself with persistent zeal 

to the cause of the friendless and the oppressed. 

Of slender physical strength 

and of a nature refined and delicate. 

He was led by patriotism and the love of freedom 

to leave home and friends for the toilsome labors of war, 

and shrank from no fatigue and danger, 

until worn out in her service. 

He gave his life for his country. 

r 

Just opposite is the phiin shaft, erected by himself twenty 
years before his death, of Dr. Josiah Bartlett, wlio practised 
medicine in this town with devotion and success for a period of 
fifty-five 3'ears. He was the son of Dr. Josiah Bartlett, of 
Charlestown, who was a surgeon's mate, in 1775, at Concord 
Fight, so that tlie practice of father and son extended over a 
century. He was an earnest and fearless advocate of the cause 
of temperance when it was most unpopular, and was always on 
the side of the oppressed. He died in January, 1878, in active 
practice at the age of eighty-one. 

On the side of the hill, on Glen Path, is the monument 
designed by Hammatt Billings, and erected to the memory of 
the Hon. Samuel Hoar, who by his descendants, as well as by 
the probity and simple grandeur of his life, has done more to 



24 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

elevate the standard of living than an}^ other man in the town 
or county. His epitaph, which is here copied, will speak far 
better than any words of this book. At the upper portion, on 
a tablet resembling a window, is this quotation from Pilgrim's 
Progress : 

'• The pilgrim they laid in a chamber 

Whose window opened toward the sunrising ; 

The name of the chamber was Peace. 

There he lay till break of day, and then 

He arose and sang." 

Lower on the same face of the monument : 

SAMUEL HOAR 

of Concord. 

Born in Lincoln, May, 1778, 

Died in Concord, Nov. 2, 1856. 

He was long one of the most eminent lawyers 

and best beloved citizens of Mass., 

a safe counsellor, a kind neighbor, 

a Crhristian gentleman. 

He had a dignity that commanded the respect, 

and a sweetness and modesty that won the affection 

of all men. 

He practised an economy that never wasted, 

and a liberality that never spared. 

Of proved capacity for the highest offices, 

He never avoided obscure duties. 

He never sought stations of fame or emolument, 

and never shrank 

from positions of danger or obloquy. 



EARLY HISTORY, CHURCHES AND BURYING GROUND. 25 

His days were made happy 

by public esteem and private affection. 

To the latest moment of his long life 

he preserved his clear intellect unimpaired, 

and fully conscious of its approach, 

met death with the perfect assurance of 

immortal life. 

We copy, also, another inscription from the same family lot, 
in memory of his daughter, whose death was mourned as the 
greatest of calamities, as her life was held by all as the greatest 
of blessings. 

MISS ELIZABETH HOAR, 

Died April 7, 1878, aged 63. 

Her sympathy with what is high and fair 

brought her into intimacy with many 

eminent men and women of her time. 

Nothing excellent or beautiful escaped 

her quick apprehension ; and in her 

unfailing memory precious things 

lay in exact order as in a royal treasury, 

hospitably ready to instruct and 

delight young and old. Her calm 

courage and simple religious faith 

triumphed over sickness and pain ; and 

when Death transplanted her to her 

place in the Garden of the Lord, 

He found little perishable to prune away. 

The first burial in Sleepy Hollow was that of Mrs. Maria 
Holbrook, in the fall of 1855. The first burial in the New Hill 



26 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

Burying Ground was that of Mrs. Anna Robbins in 1823, whicli 
fact is noted on the stone. In the year 1869 the town pur- 
chased the land of the Agricultural Societ}^ and thus united 
the New Hill Ground with Sleepy Hollow, which now com- 
prises about thirty acres. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE BATTLE GKOTJND. 



The Battle Ground was presented to the town by the Rev. 
Dr. Ripley, who remarked iu Town Meeting a half century ago 
that the time woukl come when the spot wouhl be a phice of 
great interest to many. How well the prediction has been ful- 
filled, the daily stream of visitors bears abundant witness. It 
is on Monument St., nearly half a mile from the center of the 
town, and near the Old Manse, having been a part of the farm 
belonging to it, since the course of the road was changed which 
formerly crossed the old North Bridge. 

The lesrends of the Fight being: somewhat contradictory in 



27 



28 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

minor parts, it has been thought best to follow in this brief 
sketch the account of Lemuel Shattuck, and that of the Rev. 
Dr. Ripley, adding in ftdl the extract from the diary of the Rev. 
Mr. William Emerson, which was discovered and first published 
in 1835, by his grandson, Mr. R. W. Emerson. The following 
is a concise statement abridged from Shattuck's History of Con- 
cord, published in 1835. It should be borne in mind that it is 
not within the scope of this book to allude to events which did 
not take place in the town. 

The morning had advanced to about seven o'clock, and the British army 
were soon seen approaching the town on the Lexington road. The glitter- 
ing arms of eight hundred soldiers, " the flower of the British army " were 
full in view. At first it was thought best that our men should face the 
enemy, as few as they were, and abide the consequences. Of this opinion, 
among others, was the Rev. William Emerson, the clergyman of the town, 
who had turned out amongst the first in the morning to animate and encour- 
age his people by his counsel and patriotic example. " Let us stand our 
ground," said he ; " if we die, let us die here ! " Eleazar Brooks of Lincoln 
was then on the hill. " Let us go and meet them," said one to him. " No," 
he answered, "it will not do for tis to begin' the war." They did not then 
know what had happened at Lexington. Their number was very small in 
comparison with the enemy, and it was concluded best to retire a short dis- 
tance, and wait for reinforcements. They consequently marched to the 
northern declivity of the burying ground hill, near the present site of the 
court house. They did not, however, leave their station till the British light 
infantry had arrived within a few rods' distance. About this time Colonel 
James Barrett, who was commander of the militia, and who had been almost 
incessantly engaged that morning in securing the stores, rode up. Individ- 
uals were frequently arriving, bringing different reports. It was difficult to 
obtain correct information. Under these circumstances, he ordered the men 
there paraded, being about one hundred and fifty, to march over the North 



THE BATTLE GROUND. 29 

Bridg-e, and there wait for reinforcements. In the meantime the British 
troops entered the town. The six companies of Hght infantry were ordered 
to enter on the hill, and disperse tiie minute men whom they had seen 
paraded there. The grenadiers came up the main road, and halted on the 
common. The first object of the British was to gain possession of the 
North and South bridges, to prevent any militia from entering over them. 
Accordingly, while Col. Smith remained in the center of the town, he de- 
tached six companies of light infantry, under command of Capt. Lawrence 
Parsons of his own regiment, to take possession of the North Brid^re, and 
proceed thence to places where stores were deposited. On their arrival 
there, three companies under command of Capt. Laurie of the 43d reg- 
iment, were left to protect the bridge ; one of those, commanded by Lieut. 
Edward Thornton Gould, paraded at the bridge ; the other, of the 4th and 
loth regiments, fell back in the rear towards the hill. Capt. Parsons, with 
three companies, proceeded to Col. Barrett's to destroy the stores there 
deposited. At the same time Capt. Mundey Pole, of the loth regiment, was 
ordered to take possession of the South Bridge, and destroy such public 
property as he could find in that direction. The grenadiers and marines, 
under Smith and Pitcairn, remained in the center of the town, where all 
means in their power were used to accomplish the destruction of military 
stores. In the center of the town the grenadiers broke open about sixty 
barrels of flour, nearly one half of which was afterwards saved, knocked off 
the trunnions of three iron twenty-four pound cannon, and burnt sixteen 
new carriage-wheels, and a few barrels of wooden trenchers and spoons. 
The liberty-pole on the hill was cut down, and suffered the same fate. 
About five hundred pounds of balls were thrown into the mill-pond and 
into wells. While the British were thus engaged, our citizens and part of 
our military men, having secured what articles of public property they could, 
were assembling under arms. Beside the minute-men and militia of Con- 
cord, the military companies from the adjoining towns began to assemble ; 
and the number had increased to about two hundred and fifty or three 
hundred. John Robinson of Westford, a lieutenant-colonel in a regiment of 



30 



THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 



minute-men under Col. William Prescott, and other men of distinction had 
already assembled. The hostile acts and formidable array of the enemy, 
and the burning of the articles they had collected in the village, led them to 
anticipate a general destruction. Joseph Hosmer, acting as adjutant, formed 
the soldiers as they arrived singly or in squads, the minute companies on the 
right, and the militia on the left, facing the town. He then, observing an 
unusual smoke arising from the center of the town, went to the officers and 
citizens in consultation on the high ground near by, and inquired earnestly, 
" Will you let them burn the town down ? " They then " resolved to march 
into the middle of the town to defend their homes, or die in the attempt ; " 
and at the same time they resolved not to tire unless first fired upon. " They 
acted upon principle, and in the fear of God." Col. Barrett immediately 
gave orders to march by wheeling from the right. Major Buttrick requested 
Lieut. Col. Robinson to accompany him, and led them in double file to the 
scene of action. When they came to the road leading from Capt. Brown's 
to the bridge, a part of the Acton minute company under Capt. Davis passed 
by in front, marched towards the bridge a short distance, and halted. Being 
in files of two abreast, the Concord minute company under Capt. Brown, 
being before at the head, marched up the north side till they came equally 
in front. The precise position, however, of each company, cannot now be 
fully ascertained. 

The British, observing their motions, immediately formed on the east side 
of the river, and soon began to take up the planks of the bridge. Against 
this Maj. Buttrick remonstrated, and ordered a quicker step of his soldiers. 
The British desisted. At that moment two or three guns were fired in quick 
succession into the river, which the provincials considered as alarm guns, 
and not aimed at them. They had arrived within ten or fifteen rods of the 
bridge when a single gun was fired by a British soldier, the ball from which, 
passing under Col. Robinson's arm, slightly wounded the side of Luther 
Blanchard, a fifer in the Acton company, and Jonas Brown, one of the Con- 
cord minute-men. This gun was instantly followed by a volley, by which 
Capt. Isaac Davis and Abner Hosmer, both belonging to Acton, were killed. 



THE BATTLE GROUND. 33 

On seeing- this, Maj. Buttrick instantly leaped from the ground, and partly 
turning to his men, exclaimed : " Fire, fellow-soldiers, for God's sake, fire ; " 
discharg-ing his own gun almost in the same instant. His order was in- 
stantly obeyed ; and a general discharge from the whole line of the pro- 
vincial ranks took place. Firing on both sides continued a few minutes. 
Three British soldiers were killed, and Lieuts. Sunderland, Kelley, and 
Gould, a sergeant and four privates were wounded. The British immedi- 
ately retreated about half way to the meeting house, and were met by two 
companies of grenadiers, who had been drawn thither by " the noise of 
battle." Two of the soldiers killed at the bridge were left on the ground, 
where they were afterwards buried by Zachariah Brown, and Thomas Davis, 
jun. From this time through the day, little or no military order was pre- 
served among the provincials ; every man chose his own time and mode of 
attack. It was between ten and eleven o'clock when the firing at the bridge 
took place, and a short time after Capt. Parsons and his party returned 
unmolested from Col. Barrett's. 

By this time the provincials had considerably increased, and were con- 
stantly arriving from the neighboring towns. The British had but partially 
accomplished the objects of their expedition ; but they now began to feel 
that they were in danger, and resolved on an immediate retreat. They 
retreated in the same order as they entered town, the infantry on the hill and 
the grenadiers in the road, but with flanking parties more numerous and 
farther from the main body. On arriving at Merriam's Corner they were 
attacked by the provincials, who had proceeded across the Great Fields in 
conjunction with a company from Reading, under command of Gov. Brooks. 
Several of the British were killed, and several wounded. None of the pro- 
vincials were injured. From this time the road was literally lined with 
provincials, whose accurate aim generally produced the desired effect. Guns 
were fired from every house, barn, wall, or covert. After they had waylaid 
the enemy and fired upon them from one position, they fell back from the 
road, ran forward, and came up again to perform a similar manoeuvre. 



34 



THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 



The following is an extract from the diary of Rev. William 

Emerson : 

"1775, 19 April. This morning, between one and two o'clock, we were 
alarmed by the ringing of the bell, and upon examination found that the 
troops, to the number of eight hundred, had stolen their march from Boston, 
in boats and barges, from the bottom of the Common over to a point in 
Cambndo-e, near to Inman's Farm, and were at Lexington meeting-house 
half an hour before sunrise, where they had fired upon a body of our men 
and, as we afterward heard, had killed several. This intelligence w^as 
broucrht us first by Dr. Samuel Prescott, who narrowly escaped the guard 
that were sent before on horses, purposely to prevent all posts and messen- 
gers from giving us timely information. He, by the help of a very fleet 
horse, crossing several walls and fences, arrived at Concord at the time 
above mentioned, when several posts were .immediately despatched, that, 
returning, confirmed the account of the regulars' arrival at Lexington, and 
that they were on their way to Concord. Upon this, a number of our minute 
men belono-ing to this town, and Acton and Lincoln, with several others 
that were in readiness, marched out to meet them, while the alarm com- 
pany were preparing to receive them in the town. Capt. Minot, who 
commanded them, thought it proper to take possession of the hill above the 
meeting-house as the most advantageous situation. No sooner had our 
men gained it, than we were met by the companies that were sent out to 
meet the troops, who informed us that they were just upon us, and that 
we must retreat, as their number was more than treble ours. We then 
retreated from the hill near the Liberty Pole, and took a new post back 
of the town, upon an eminence, where we formed into two battalions, and 
waited the arrival of the enemy. Scarcely had we formed, before we saw 
the British troops, at the distance of a quarter of a mile, glittering in 
arms, advancing towards us with the greatest celerity. Some were for 
making a stand, notwithstanding the superiority of their number; but 
others, more prudent, thought best to retreat, till our strength should be 
equal to the enemy's, by recruits from neighboring towns that were con- 



THE BA TTLE GROUND. 35 

tinually coming in to our assistance. Accordingly we retreated over the 
bridge. The troops came into the town, set fire to several carriages for 
the artillery, distroyed sixty barrels of flour, rifled several houses, took pos- 
session of the town-house, destroyed five hundred pounds of balls, set a 
guard of a hundred men at the North Bridge, and sent up a party to the 
house of Col. Barrett, where they were in expectation of finding a quantity 
of warlike stores. But these w^ere happily secured, just before their arrival, 
by transportation into the woods and other by-places. In the mean time, 
the guard set by the enemy to secure the posts at the North Bridge were 
alarmed by the approach of our people, who had retreated, as mentioned 
before, and were now advancing, with special orders not to fire upon the 
troops unless fired upon. These orders w^ere so punctually observed, that 
we received the fire of the enemy in three several and separate discharges of 
their pieces before it was returned by our commanding officer. The firing 
then soon became general for several minutes, in which skirmish two w^ere 
killed on each side, and several of the enemy wounded. It may here be 
observed, by the way, that w^e \vere the more cautious to prevent beginning a 
rupture with the king's troops, as we were then uncertain what had happened 
at Lexington, and knew [riot] that they had begun the quarrel there by 
firing upon our people, and killing eight men upon the spot. The three 
companies of troops soon quitted their post at the bridge, and retreated in 
the greatest disorder and confusion to the main body, who were soon upon 
the march to meet them. For half an hour, the enemy, by their marches 
and counter-marches, discovered great fickleness and inconstancy of mind; 
sometimes advancing sometimes returning to their former posts, till at 
length they quitted the towm, and retreated by the way they came. In the 
mean time a party of our men (one hundred and fifty) took the back w^ay, 
through the Great Fields, into the east quarter, and had placed themselves to 
advantage, lying in ambush behind walls, fences, and buildings, ready to fire 
upon the enemy on their retreat." 



CHAPTER III. 

HOUSES OF HISTORICAL INTEREST. 

Under this head it is proposed to give a list of all houses any 
part of which was standing at the time of the Fight. Of most 
of them it has been difQcult to find the exact date of their 
erection, but it has been approximated as nearly as possible. 
Few have been included which are more than a mile from the 
center of tlie town, and none of which there is a doubt of their 
being in existence or in progress at the date above mentioned. 

On the square the Wright tavern stands just as on the day 
when Maj. Pitcairn entered it on the morning before the battle, 
when he stirred the brandy with his bloody finger, making the re- 

36 



HOUSES OF HISTORICAL INTEREST. 



37 



mark, that he would stir the rebels blood before night. This 
building, with the exception of the L has probably suffered less 
change than any other of the old houses. Tlie church which stood 
near it was built in 1712, and the present building contains 
some of the same timbers as the old one. The old yellow block 







1^«»!'"U ■r.ip^—^ ^fr 







THE WRIGHT TAVERN. 



at the other side of the square was used for stores and residen- 
ces, and probably dates back to 1750. Nearly opposite Wriglit's 
tavern is the Tolman house, which was inhabited by Dr. Ezekiel 
Brown, who was a surgeon in the Revolutionar}^ war ; and at 
the other side of the square, at the beginning of Monument St., 
the row of buildings were in part occupied as store-houses, in 



38 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

which some of the Provincial supplies were kept, to obtain 
which was one of the causes of the invasion of the town by 
the British troops. 

Proceeding down the Boston road the house of Jonas Lee 
is about opposite the end of the yellow block. Its owner was a 
staunch patriot, although the son of a noted tory who was 
brouo'ht to discipline by his townsmen for that cause. The 
next house on the same side was the home of Dr. Joseph Hunt ; 
and the next building but one was the shop of Reuben Brown, 
where knapsacks, saddlery and other equipments were made. 
Its owner was prominent on the day of the Fight having been dis- 
patched on a reconnoitering tour toward Lexington in the morn- 
ing. The house next to it was also standing, as well as the one 
oQCupied by George Hey wood, Esq., which is supposed to be at 
least two hundred years old. It was just below this house that 
the guard was posted, at the same time that one was placed at 
the old North and another at the old South brido-e. A little 
below is the Beal house, and half a mile below it the Alcott 
house, both of which date back to about 1740. The house of 
Ephraim Bull, Esq., was probably nearly as old, and it is well 
known all over tlie United States through the Concord Grape 
which was originated here by its present owner. Half a mile 
below is Merriam's corner. The old house stands as it stood 
when the Reading and other troops under the command of Gov. 
Brooks, came up and joined the men Avho had come across the 
great fields from the North Bridge, and killed and wounded 
several of the retreating British. 



HOUSES OF HISTORICAL INTEREST. 41 

On the Bedford road are two or three houses of great 
age. 

On the Turnpike and Lincoln roads the Tuttle and Fox 
houses date back to 1740 or ^b. 
Returning to the square and crossing the old mill-dam, 

the Vose house is remarkable as being the only three-story 
house ever built in town. In a picture taken about 1775 it is 
very prominent, and was doubtless one of the chief houses of 
the village. Above it on the right, on Main street stands the 
house of Dr. Barrett, one room of which was a portion of the 
old block house dating back perhaps to King Philip's War; near 
this house, at a corner of the burial ground, stood the old jail 
in which some of the British prisoners were confined. The 
road turned at this point and went toward the Wheeler house, 
which was built in the present forjii in 1700, and ]ias always 
remained in the possession of the same family. A i^vf rods 
above the South Bridge was the home of Capt. Joseph Hosmer 
who was requested by Maj. Buttrick to act as adjutant, and 
rendered ver}^ efficient service in marshalling and collecting the 
Americans as they arrived from various points ; it has remained 
in the family of his descendants ever since its erection in 1761, 
and was a place of concealment for stores which were saved by 
the courage and ingenuity of Mrs. Hosmer; a detachment of 
British soldiers was sent to capture their cannon balls which 
were heaped in one of the rooms, and the kegs of powder which 
had been hidden behind some feathers under the eaves, but the 
shrewd lady contrived to send the troops away without discov- 



42 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

eriiig them, although thej destroyed several of her beds in the 
search. 

Nearly behind this house is another old one built about 1763, 
which was the home of Ephriam Wood, Esq., who was a zealous 
patriot and an officer of the town, and was engaged in secreting 
some stores in another place, and escaped the search which was 
made for him through the house. A short distance up the road 
which passes in front of Adjutant, afterwards known as Maj. 
Hosmer's house, is another old house which belonged to a 
member of the same famil}^ and half a mile east of it is the 
house of Abel Hosmer, the builder of which was on his way to 
Charlestown for a load of brick when he met the British coming 
from Lexington. 

Opposite the Depot of the extension of the Middlesex 
branch of the Central R. R. stands the house of the celebrated Dr. 
Cummings, In early life he was a soldier in the wars with the In- 
dians. Being wounded, he was captured, treated with severity 
at first, and afterwards with kindness. He received a commission 
from the Crown as Justice of the Peace, and at the beginning of 
the Revolution he became chairman of tlie committee of corre- 
spondence, inspection and safety. After tlie war he acquired 
property and left bequests to the church, town. Harvard Col- 
lege, etc. 

Going up Monument street toward the Battle Ground, 
the first of the old houses is that owned by Mr. Lang which 
was built by Humphrey Barrett, the great grandfather of Col. 
James Barrett who had command of the American forces. He 
came to Concord in 1640, and a portion of the house bears 



BOUSES OF HISTORICAL INTEREST. 43 

marks of great age. The next liouse but two on the same side 
of the road, is one of the oklest in town, and was owned by 
Elisha Jones at the time of the Fi^'ht, and bore marks of acre at 
tliat time, it remains much in tlie same form, and the present 
owner Jolni S. Keyes, Esq., has carefully preserved many relics 
of the time, among which are copies of tlie old pictures of the 
battle, and a view of the town as it then existed. In the L 
part a bullet hole is plainly visible, which was made by a British 
bullet, near which is a portion of the old North Bridge nailed 
auainst a beam ; underneath this stands the stone across which 
Capt. Isaac Davis fell. This stone formed a portion of a row 
which were used as stepping stones when the water was liigh on 
the causeway, and it was identified by certain stains which 
appear on it. The wife of a grandson of Col. Barrett lived in 
this house and used to relate her vivid recollections of the day, 
as she watched the red coats march by the house as she stood 
at a window on a pile of salt fish which formed part of the 
stores concealed tliere. Her husband's father built a house on 
Ponkawtassett where Mr. Daniel Hunt also lived. 

On Ponkawtassett Hill, near these houses the min- 
ute men and militia went to watch the movements of the British, 
and after receiving reinforcements marched down to the liigh 
groundby Maj. Buttrick's house which still stands, and is now 
occupied by Mr. J. Derby. This house was built by Jonathan 
Buttrick in 1712, and the front part remains the same as in 1775, 
and it was in the j)ossession of the Buttrick family until 1832. 
It is recorded on the grave stone of Jonathan Buttrick that 
thirteen well-instructed children followed him to the grave, one 



44 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

of whom was Maj. John Buttrick the liero of the Fight. His 
brothers Samuel, Joseph and Daniel all left their farms and 
served under the Maj. at the bridge. Their houses are now 
standing on the Carlisle road above Ponkawtassett on the farms 
which were given them by their father. The Ball Hill farm- 
house was also built long before 1775, and a son of the family, 
Benjamin Ball, was killed at Bunker Hill. The old Whittaker 
house was also where it is now, just behind Ponkawtassett. 
The Hunt house was the oldest on this hill, and it was the one 
at which the Americans were supplied with food as they assem- 
bled on the hill waiting for reinforcements. The house of 
Capt. Nathan Barrett who commanded the fourth company at 
the fight, and who joined in the pursuit of the British, and was 
wounded in the afternoon of that day, was near Mr. Hunt'son 
Ponkawtassett ; and the house of his father, Col. James Barrett, 
also stands near Annursnuck hill on the same spot as it occu- 
pied in 1775. He was in command of the American forces 
engaged, and discharged the onerous duties also of the arrange- 
ment and protection of the public stores. Being one of the 
most prominent men of the town, a party of British soldiers 
searched his house as well as that of his brother which stood 
near. They were provided with refreshments by the wife of 
Col. Barrett who refused payment, saying: "We are com- 
manded to feed our enemies." She afterwards kept with reluc- 
tance the money which they threw into her lap, saying, " this 
is the price of blood." This heroic woman succeeded in con- 
cealing a quantity of ammunition, but fifty dollars was taken by 
the soldiers who also arrested her son whom she persuaded them 



HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST. 45 

to liberate with the remark '' this is my son and not the master 
of the house." 

The vicinity of Col. Barrett's house is a very important 
point in the history of the town, for his prominence as Col. of 
the Militia rendered him and his property objects of peculiar 
importance and suspicion to the British who were well informed 
through their spies of the state of things at Concord. For 
this reason a detachment of troops was sent to this house early 
in the forenoon in the hope of capturing Col. Barrett himself, 
as well as some of the munitions of war which were known to 
be concealed there; some of them were saved by beirtg buried 
in a newly-planted field and by being ingeniously hidden in 
other ways. The British had made a pile of the gun carriages 
and of the articles which they succeeded in finding, and were 
about to burn them when their attention was turned from the 
work of destruction by the sound of firing at the old North 
Bridge. 

On hearing the repeated volleys of musketry the company 
which numbered about one hundred men took up their line of 
march toward the center of the town which had been held by 
the main body of the troops, under Smith and Pitcairn, as they 
were in great danger of being cut off in their retreat. They 
had to march a distance of nearly two miles and were well 
aware, from small bodies of minute men who passed within 
sight, that the citizens of the neighboring towns were rapidly 
hastening to the relief of Concord. 

On their return they were obliged to pass over the old North 
Bridge where the Fight occurred, but were enabled to do this in 



46 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

safety, as tlie victorious Americans did not attempt to follow 
the British with whom they had been engaged, on their way 
back to the center of the town, but they crossed over the great 
fields as before stated in order to intercept the British forces at 
Merriam's Corner. 

The college road which is near the Barrett house is a lasting 
memorial of the time when Harvard College was removed to 
Concord in the winter of 1775, by order of the Provincial Con- 
gress, as the college buildings at Cambridge were needed for 
the use of the soldiers of the American Arm3^ The Rev. Dr. 
Ripley and Dr. Hurd, and several other men afterward well 
known in the annals of their state, were among those who 
made a visit to Concord at this period. A letter of thanks 
from the President of the college is still extant, in which he 
expresses his gratitude and apologies in graceful terms. The 
Professors were quartered in several houses in the village, the 
President himself residing at Dr. Minot's near the Middlesex 
hotel. 

Many of the students boarded at the old mansion house, 
built by Simon Willard, one of the founders of the town at 
the foot of Lee's hill. If this article were not necessarily con- 
fined to the Historical houses at present standing, a picture 
of the Willard liouse would be of great interest; but the 
building unfortunately was destroyed by fire about twenty 
years ago. 

This house stood on the farm of a noted tory named Lee, 
who made himself so unpopular that he was confined to the 
limits of his farm, and legend states that the minute men when 



HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST. 47 

returinnp^ from their drill often made a tarsfet of liis buildincrs. 
The house was owned formerly by the Woodis family with 
whom the Barrett family were conneoted, and Joseph P^arrett 
Esq. a grandson of Col. James Barrett, owned and occupied it 
for many years. He was a prominent citizen of Concord, and 
was appointed to many places of trust and honor, having been 
at the time of his death Treasurer of the Commonwealth. 

The several branches of the Barrett family which descended 
from Humphrey Barrett, whose house is spoken of in this arti- 
cle, have been prominent in the town of Concord ever since its 
settlement, and still continue to occupy places worthy of their 
ancestry, and three of their homes have been included in this 
list of Historical Houses which still stand as they stood at 
the time of the Concord Figi'ht. 



CHAPTER IV. 

HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST. 

The Home of Ralph Waldo Emerson is a plain, square, 
wooden house, standing in a grove of pine trees, which conceal 
the front and side from the gaze of passers. Tall chestnut 
trees ornament the old-fashioned yard, through which a road 
leads to the plain, yellow barn in the rear. A garden fills half 
an acre at the back, and has for 3^ears been famous for its roses 
and also has a rare collection of hollyhocks, the flowers that 
Wordsworth loved, and most of ihe old-time annuals and 
shrubs. From the road a gate, which is always open, leads 
over marble flag-stones to the broad, low step before the hospit- 
able door. 

48 



HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST- 



49 



A long hall divides the centre of the house, with two large 
square rooms on each side ; a plain, solid table stands at the 
right of tills entry, over which is an old picture of Ganymede. 

The first door on the right leads to the study, a plain, square 
room, lined on one side with simple wooden shelves filled with 
choice books; a large mahogany table stands in the middle, 
covered with books, and by the morocco writing-pad lies the 
pen which has had so great an influence for twentj^-five j^ears 
on the thoughts of two continents. A large fire-place, with 
a low grate occupies the lower end, over which hangs 
a fine copy of Michael Angelo's Fates, the faces of the strong- 
minded women frowning upon all who would disturb with idle 
tongues this haunt of solemn thought. On the mantle shelf are 
busts and statuettes of men prominent in the great reforms of 
the age, and a quaint, rough idol brought from the Nile. A 
few choice engravings hang upon the walls, and the pine trees 
shade the windows. 

Two doors, one on each side of the great fire place, lead into 
the large parlor which fills the southern quarter of the house. 
This room is hung with curtains of crimson and carpeted with 
a warm color, and when a bright fire is blazing on the broad 
hearth reflected in the large mirror opposite, the effect is cheer- 
ful in the extreme. A beautiful portrait of one of the daugh- 
ters of the house is hung in this pleasant and homelike room, 
whose home circle seems to reach around the world ; for almost 
every person of note who has visited this country, has enjoyed 
its genial hospitality, and listened with attention to the words 
of wisdom from the kindly master of the house — the most 



so 



THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 



modest and most gifted writer, and deepest thinker of the age. 

Years ago the chatty, little Frederika Bremer paid a long visit 
here, a brisk old lady, as restless as her tongue 
and pen. Here Margaret Fuller and the other 
bright figures of TAe i)ia? met for conversation. 
Thoreau was a daily visitor, and his " Wood^ 
Notes " might have been unuttered but for the 
kind encouragement he found here. The Al- 
cotts, father and daughter, 
\Aere near neighbors, and it was 




HOME OF EMERSON. 

in this room that Mr. Alcott's earliest " Conversations " were 
held, now so well known. Here, too, old John Brown was of- 



HO USES OF LITERAR Y IN TERES T. 51 

ten to be met, a plain, poorly-dressed old farmer, seeming out 
of place, and absorbed in his own plans until some allusion, 
or chance remark, would fire his soul and light up his rugged 
features. 

But a dozen volumes would not give space enough to mention 
in full the many guests from foreign lands, who have been 
entertained at this house, which is also a favorite place for the 
villagers to visit. The school-children of Concord are enter- 
tained here every year with merry games and dances, and they 
look forward with great interest to the eventful occasion. 

The house w^as partially destroyed by fire in the spring of 
1873, and was rebuilt as nearly as possible like the former. 
During the building a portion of tlie family found shelter in the 
Old ]\Ianse, the home of Mr. Emerson's grandfather, while Mr. 
Emerson himself visited Europe. Upon his return an im- 
promptu reception took place ; the citizens gathered at the 
depot in crowds, the school children were drawn up in two 
smiling rows, through which he passed, greeted by enthusiastic 
cheers and songs of welcome. All followed his carriage to the 
house and sung '^ Home, Sweet Home," to the music of the 
band. A few days afterward he invited all his fellow-citizens 
to call and see him in his new home, and nearly all the inhabi- 
tants availed themselves of the opportunity. 

A general invitation is now very often extended to old and 
young, to assemble on Sunday evenings in the pleasant parlor 
for conversation. Many of these talks have been led by Mr. 
Alcott, as before mentioned. Some have been of a religious 
nature, especially those led by the Rev. Mr. Channing, and by 



52 



THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK, 



Rev. Mr. Reynolds, the pastor of the Unitarian churcli. The 
house stands on an okl country road, up which the Britisli 
marched on the memorable 19th of April, 1775, It is not 
necessary to speak of the writings of Mr. Emerson, as they 
are too well-known to need mention here. 

The Old Manse which has been at various times the home 
of Emerson, stands at the left of the Battle Ground and is 
approached by an avenue of noble trees, which were originally 
black ash, a tree very rare in this part of New England. Many 
of these ash trees have died from age, and their places have 
been supplied by elms and maples. Two high posts of granite 
mark the entrance to the avenue, which extends for about two 
hundred feet to the door of tlie house. Opposite, across the 
narrow country road, a hill overlooks the village, and gives a 
fine view of the winding river, and distant mountains. A 
solitary poplar crowns the summit of the hill, and affords a 
landmark to the river-voyager, as it can be seen for miles up 
and down the stream. A romantic legend is connected with 
this tree, about a party of young girls who were at school in 
the Old Manse, each of whom caused a tree to be set out, and 
called b}^ her name. Year by year, the girls and trees grew up 
together in grace and beauty. At length, one by one, the old 
ladies died, and the trees died too, until one very old lady and 
this old weather-beaten poplar, alone remained. The lady for 
whom the surviving poplar was named, has gone to her rest, and 
the tree seems likely to follow before long. 

The large field at the left of the Old Manse, which divides 
it from the Battle Ground, was, centuries ao-o, the site of an 



BOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST. 



S3 



Indian village, and often rough arrows and spear-heads have 
been turned up by the plough. The savages probably chose 
this gentle slope by the river for the sake of tlie fish with wliich 
it then abounded, for the earlier settlers report a plentiful 
supply of shad and salmon, where now poor little breams and 




THE OLD MANSE. 



horn-pouts alone tempt the idle fisherman. Behind the house 
there extends to the river an ancient orchard of apple trees, 
wliich is in itself a monument of energy and faitli, lor it 
was set by Dr. Ripley, who came to the house in 1778, as 
stated below. The house, built for Rev. William Emerson 



54 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

in the year 1765, and occupied by him the next year after 
his marriage to a daughter of the Rev. Daniel Bliss, with the 
exception of a few j^ears when it was occupied by Hawthorne, 
has always been the home of ministers and the descendants of 
the builder. Nearly all the old New England ministers have 
been entertained under its roof, and many questions affecting 
the beliefs of the age have been here discussed and settled. 
The room in which this article is written, was the study of the 
Rev. Ezra Riplejs who as stated elsewhere married the widow 
of the builder of the home, and here thousands of sermons 
have doubtless been written. It is a small, square room with 
high wainscot and oaken beams overhead, with a huge fire-place 
where four-foot sticks used to burn on great, high, brass 
andirons. 

It was in this room, too, that the ghost used to appear, 
according to Hawthorne, but it probably only existed in his 
brilliant imagination. Often, on a winter night, the latch of 
the old door has lifted without human help, and a gust of cold 
wind has swept into the room. 

Opposite the study, is a larger room, which is modernized by 
rare photographs and recent adornments, and is used as a parlor 
by its present owners, the grandchildren of the original pro- 
prietors. From this apartment a door opens into the ancient 
dining-room, in which the old-time ministers held their solemn 
feasts, and it is said that they were well able to appreciate the 
good cheer which covered the long table that nearly filled the 
narrow liall. In one corner of this room stands a tall clock, 
looking across at its life-long companion, the ancient desk of 



HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST. 



55 



Dr. Ripley ; and a set of curious, old, high-backed chairs recall 
the days of our upright ancestors. 

Opposite this room is a big kitchen with its enormous fire- 
place, which twenty-five years ago was used wholly by the 
present occupants for all purposes of cooking. The hooks 
which held the long, iron crime on which the pots and kettles 
hung still remain, although a modern cooking stove occupies 
the chief part of the broad hearth. 

The Old Manse was the principal house of the town for many 
years, and probably the only one which had two stories, as 
almost all of the houses of its period were built with a lean-to. 
It was also the only one which was built with two chimneys, 
thus giving a large garret, which is rich in the curious lumber 
of two generations, and stored with literature enjoyed only by 
the spider and the moth. In one corner, on the southern side, 
is a curious little room which has been always known as the 
'* Saints' Chamber," its walls bearing inscriptions in the hand- 
writing of the holy men who have rested there. 

The room over the dining-room is perhaps the most interest- 
ing, for it was here that Emerson wrote "Nature" and also 
many of his best poems. Hawthorjie describes this room, 
which he also used as his study, in his " Mosses from an Old 
Manse," which was also written here. It has three windows 
with small cracked panes of glass bearing inscriptions traced 
with a diamond, probably by some of the Hawthorne family. 
From the northern window the wife of the Rev. William 
Emerson watched the progress of the 19th of April fight ; and 
one hundred years later, on the same day, her grandaughter, 



56 



THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 



who now occupies the room, pointed out to her guests the 



honored men who marched in 
over the old North Bridge to 
monument and celebrate the 
the memorable day. The Old 
mentioned, was 
home of Dr. Ezra 
sketcli lol 





long procession 
dedicate the new 
anniversary of 
Manse, as before 
for years the 



^^"^ Ripley, of whom a short 
-^J^^ lows. 

^ ^ ley was born May 1st, 



1751, at Woodstock, Conn. 
\ He was the fifth of nine- 
teen children. His father 
was born in Hingham, 
Mass., on the farm first 
purchased by Mr. Ripley 
from England, at tlie first 
settlement of the town. Thir- 
ty 3^ears ago the seventh and 
eiofhth o-enerations still lived 
on this farm. By his own 
'^ exertions, and the patronage 
of Dr. Forbes, of Gloucester, he fitted himself for college, 
and entered Harvard University in July 1772. Owing to his 
high moral and religious character, he was called by his class- 
mates '' Holy Ripley." He became the pastor of the church 
in Concord, Nov. 7, 1778. The times were disordered and 
the currency depreciated. His salary of five hundred and fifty 
pounds, when paid, was found to be worth only forty pounds. 




HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST. 57 

For many years he did a man's work in the field, more tlian 
three days out of the week on an average, to snpport his family. 
Scarcely any minister ever took so deep an interest in tlie tem- 
poral prosperity of his people as Dr. Ripley. The honor of the 
town Avas almost as dear to him as that of his own family. 
Education, temperance, and morals were the subjects of his 
watchful care. He formed, more than seventy years ago, per- 
haps the first Temperance Society that ever was formed. He 
went round among his people and got them to agree to banish 
intoxicating drinks from funerals. But the following extracts 
from a notice of him by Mr. R. W. Emerson, will be more 
appreciated : 

'' He was a natural gentleman — no dandy, courtly, hospitable, 
manly and public spirited, his nature social, his house open to 
all men. His brow was open and serene to his visitors — for he 
loved men and he had no studies, no occupations which com- 
pany could interrupt. His friends were his study, and to see 
them, loosened his talents and his tongue. 

'' He was open-handed, just, and generous. Ingratitude and 
meanness in his beneficiaries did not wear out his compassion. 
He bore the insult, and the next day his basket for the beggar, 
and his horse and chaise for the cripple were at their door. A 
man of anecdote, his talk in tlie parlor was chiefly narrative. 
We remember the remark of a gentleman who listened with 
much delisfht to his conversation, ' that a man Avho could tell a 
story so well, was company for kings.' An eminent skill he 
had in saying difficult and remarkable things. Was a man a 
sot or a spendthrift, or suspected of some hidden crime, or had 



58 



THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 



he quarreled with his wife, or coUared his father, or was there 
any cloud or suspicious circumstauces in his behavior, the good 
pastor knew his way straiglit to that point. In all such passages 
he justified himself to the conscience, and commonly to the 
love, of the person concerned. He was the more competent to 
these searching discourses from his knowledge of family history. 
He knew every body's grandfather, and seemed to talk with 
each person rather as the representative of his house and name 
than as an individual. This, and still more his sympathy, made 
him incomparable in his parochial visits, in his exhorations and 
prayers with sick and suffering persons. 

The Home of Nathaniel 
Hawthorne. Mr. Hawthorne 
returned to Concord from Len- 
nox in 1852, and bought of Mr. 
Alcott the small house which 
he afterward enlarged, and 
called from the first, " Way- 
side," for it stands close upon 
the way-faring of the Lexing- 
ton road. The charm of the 
Wayside felt by persons who 
have lived there any length 
of time, consists in the effect- 
ive groupings of pines, the odd, 
MR. HAWTHORNE'S INKSTAND. ^^ccp scmi-circlc fomicd about 

the lawn by the shoulder of the 
hill, closely foliaged with several kinds of trees ; and in the pretty 




HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST. 



59 



glimpses of the meadows, hemmed with woods, their delicate 
colors and occasional mists being delightful against the dark 
stems of the pines. Mr. Hawthorne was pleased with the hill- 
top, and its view. He said that such a scene, neither quite 
tame nor wholly admirable, assisted meditation far more than 
the fine landscapes at Lennox, which called so largely upon his 
attention that he could not easily think of anything else. A 
curving path, bordered by pines and locusts, leads to the top of 
the hill along which Mr. Hawthorne walked daily, and where 
he was wont to compose (he liked space for that) what he 
afterwards wrote in *'the tower," as the room elevated above 
the front of the house was humorously called in memory of the 
tower of ]\Ionte Onto. From the lawn below the hill I have 
looked up and seen Mr. Hawthorne's dark, quiet figure passing 
slowly across the dim light of mingled sky and branches, his 
tread measured, and his head bent — and he seemed to be at 
one with those surroundings, of eloquent and sombre pines, and 
the uncloying scent of the sweet-fern. Mr. Hawthorne's long 
out-door meditations in composing were explained by a remark 
he once made, that if he found he had been composing from a 
mood, he felt almost guilty of having perpetrated a lie. During 
the last year of his life he occupied very often the small 
lower room upon the left of the house, where his books were 
collected. Here he read aloud to the family the novels of Sir 
Walter Scott, in a voice rich and smooth, and changing in 
sympathetic cadence with the flow of wit, pathos, or chivalric 
sternness into broad nature. Mr. Hawthorne's loss of health 
prevented the completing of the Wayside, which was to have 



6o THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

been ultimately brought into a better harmony of the old part 
with the new. 

Miss Elizabeth P. Peabod}" a sister of Mrs. Hawthorne has 
devoted herself to Philanthropic and Educational labors and 
was instrumental in introducing the Kindergarten into this 
countr3\ 

Mr. G. P. Lathrop, the gifted author, poet and editor, and a 
son-in-law of Mr. Hawthorne now owns and occupies Wayside. 

The Poet Channing who has lived in town for forty years, 
was a friend of Emerson, Hawthorne, and Thoreau ; of the last 
he has written a biography, as well as many other books in 
prose and verse, the best of which, *' Near Home," is a poetical 
guide book of Concord. 

Thoreau was born in Concord on the 12th of July, 1817, 
and graduated at Harvard College in 1837. Having a distaste 
for all professions he worked at the manufacture of lead pencils 
until he had made one which was pronounced perfect by the 
chemists and dealers, and fully equal to the best of foreign 
manufacture, and then said he would make iio more. 

In writing of Thoreau's Home let us try to go back to the 
ancient Walden where Emerson walked through miles of his 
own woods, and where the hermit poet and philosopher Thoreau 
lived alone for over two 3'ears. Then Walden was a deep, well- 
like pond without visible inlet or outlet, half a mile in length 
and one and a half in circumference, wholly surrounded by hills 
which rise from forty to one hundred feet in height, densely 
covered with pine and oak trees. 

The water of Walden is cool in all weather and so transpar- 
ent that objects can be distinctly seen at a deoth of twenty-f^ve 



HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST. 63 

feet. Tlie pond rises and falls, but it is impossible to tell what 
laws govern it, as it is often higher in a drought than in a rainy 
season. On the northern side is a high sand-bar which was 
bare in 1825, but is now covered by about three feet of water, 
behind which a pleasant cove extends for about twenty rods to 
a gentle eminence on which stood Thoreau's house, built in 
1845, of timbers which grew on the spot, covered with boards 
which he brought from the shanty of an Irishman who had 
helped to build the railroad. With the exception of a little 
help in raising the frame, the house was the work of its owner 
and cost about thirty dollars. It was a completely weather- 
proof room, ten feet wide by fifteen long with a garret, closet, 
door and window, with two trap doors in the floor, and a brick 
chimney at one end. 

Moving into this little house in 1845, Thoreau lived for eight 
months, from July to the following May, at an expense of 
eight dollars and seventy-six cents or about one dollar nine 
cents per month. He cultivated a crop of beans to supply the 
small sum needed for his daily wants, thus being able to devote 
the greater part of his time to writing and study. He was a 
sincere philosopher and wished to protest by his simple life and 
habits against the folly of devoting much time to the demands 
of society. He used to make long journeys on foot, thinking 
it was cheaper and quicker than to devote the time to earning 
money for his railroad tickets, as he could easily walk thirty 
miles a day for weeks at a time. In this way he travelled over 
much of New England. He has left interesting accounts of 
these excursions, especially of his journeys through the Maine 



64 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

woods, and lakes and to Mt. Katahdin and the other great 
mountains which they contain. Often he wandered alone 
through these grand old primeval forests ; at other times he 
took an Indian guide or joined some roving band of savages 
who welcomed him as a lover of nature, and taught him their 
simple woodcraft, sometimes gliding for da3^s in a birch canoe 
like an autumn leaf on the gentle lakes, or down the foaming 
rapids, and sometimes climbing rough mountain sides or scaling 
dangerous precipices. He knew just what could best sustain 
life, and travelled with as little baggage as possible. He could 
content himself without food or water longer than even the 
Indians, and was able to bear great extremes of heat and cold, 
and made a variety of experiments upon his powers of 
endurance. He is said to have slept one night in a barrel 
buried in a snow-drift to ascertain the warmth of that kind 
of comforter. 

His walks about Cape Cod are full of interest, and are pub- 
lished in a book, as are also his voyages on the Concord 
and Merrimac rivers, which he carefully explored in an open 
boat. He also wrote a book on Walden itself which contains 
a chapter on wood sounds, which everybody who loves to be 
out of doors ought to know by heart. Although rather shy 
of strangers, Thoreau was always glad to welcome children to 
his house, to walk with them through the woods and teach them 
to love nature as he did. He was noted late in life as a lecturer 
and was obliged to spend some of his evenings in city life, but 
he was always glad to go back to the woods and was never 
lonely when alone in their solitude. Living thus out of doors 



HO USES OF LITER A R V INTERES T, 65 

he became a close observer, could tell the notes of all insects, 
birds and animals, and the meaning which they wished to 
express. He knew where all the scarce and curious flowers 
grew, and discovered plants in Concord woods which no one 
had ever seen there. He first found the climbing fern, and is 
said to have discovered the red snow of the Arctic regions. He 
was an earnest admirer of old John Brown, and made an elo- 
quent address in his praise directly after his arrest at Harper's 
Ferry ; although his townsmen doubted the advisibility of it at 
the time as the current of public sentiment had not then begun 
to turn strongly in favor of the old hero. 

Tlioreau was born in an old house ON the VIRGINIA ROAD 
which still stands, and he died on the 6th of May 1862, in the 
house now owned by Mrs. Pratt, who lives there at present with 
her father Mr. Alcott, and her sister Miss Louisa M. Alcott. 

It is the intention of his friends to mark permanently the site 
of Thoreau's home at Walden Pond witli a monumental boulder 
which will be put in position with appropriate exercises and 
addresses by his friends. 

The house of the Hon. Samuel Hoar stands near the 
library on Main street. It is one of the most noted in Concord, 
if literary and political interests are considered. Of the life 
and character of its first proprietor, no description can exceed 
the grand and simple statement of his epitaph, recorded in the 
account of Sleepy Hollow. The same eulogy may be accorded 
his daughter who accompanied him on his famous journey to 
Charleston, when he was forcibly removed from the State by a 



66 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

mob for attempting to test the legality of the imprisonment of 
free colored sailors. He was himself a member of and seut two 
sons to Congress, where one of them still continues his 
fearless and devoted labors in that capacity. The house oppo- 
site also sent the Hon. William Whiting to the same body, so 
that four United States Congressmen were furnished from a 
half acre of Concord ground. 

The Hon. E. R. Hoar was born in this house, his mother 
being the daughter of Roger Sherman. He graduated at Hai- 
vard College in 1835, was Judge of the Court of Common Pleas 
from 1849 to 1855 ; Judge of the Supreme Judicial Court from 
1859 to 1869; Atty. Gen. of the U.S. from 1869 to 1870; 
Member of Joint High Commission which made the Treaty of 
Washington with Great Britain, in 1871 ; Fellow of Harvard 
College from 1858 to 1868 ; President of Board of Overseers of 
Harvard College 1879 and 80; Presidential Elector 1872; Mem- 
ber of the 44th Congress 1873 to 1875. 

Among his printed works may be mentioned Report of Con- 
cord committee to build Soldiers' Monument 1867 ; Address at 
laying corner stone of Memorial Hall at Harvard College Oct. 
6, 1870 ; Opinions in Massachusetts Reports from 13 Gray to 101 
Mass ; Opinions as Attorney General of United States. He has 
been identified for years with the history of the town, whose 
people depend on him as they did on his father. His son Sam- 
uel Hoar, is a partner in his father's law office, making three 
generations of Concord lawyers who have held the highest rank 
in county and state. 

The Orchard House, noted as having been for many years 



HO USES OF LITER A R Y IN TERES T. 67 

the home of the Alcott famih% stands on the old Boston road 
about half a mile below the house of Emerson, and next to 
The Wayside, the house once owned and occupied by Haw- 
thorne. 

Amos Bronson Alcott was born at Walcott, Ct., Nov. 29th, 
1799. He went to school until he was thirteen years old, and 
at the age of twelve began to keep a diary, a practice which he 
has continued the greater part of the time since. Still earlier 
he had read Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, tiie book of all 
otliers which had the greatest influence on his mind. He learned 
to write by practising Avith chalk on his mother's kitchen floor 
and became in his bo} hood a skillful penman, so tliat his first 
essay in teaching was as master of a writing school in Carolina. 

At the age of fourteen, he worked for a while at clock 
making at Pljniiouth, Ct., and in the same year went on an excur- 
sion into northern Connecticut, and western Massachusetts, sell- 
ing a few articles as he went, to meet the expenses of his 
journey. 

On a similar journey in Virginia, a few years afterwards he 
was kindly received at the great houses of the planters, where 
he received generous hospitality and permission to explore their 
libraries, where he found many books he had never seen. Biog- 
raphy was his favorite reading; then poems and tales; and 
books of metaphysics and devotion. 

His first school was in a district three miles from his home, 
where he tauelit for three months for ten dollars a month, 
and his board ; afterwards he taught a famous school at 
Cheshire, Ct. 



68 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

Ill Januaiy 1828, he wrote a brief account of his method of 
teachingf, which attracted much attention. He continued this 
system in a simihir school in Bristol in the winter of 1827-8, 
and then removed to Boston to take charge of an infant school 
in Salem street, in June, 1828. In the following April, he 
opened a private school near St. Paul's church on Tremont 
street, in whicli he remained until November 5tli, 1830, when 
he gave it up to open a school in Gerraantown, near Philadel- 
pliia, where witli his associate, Mr. W. Russell, he remained a 
little more than two years. On the 22d of April, 1833, he 
opened a school in Philadelphia, which continued until Julv, 
1834, soon after which, September 22, 1834, Mr. Alcott returned 
to Boston and there began his famous Temple school, concern- 
ing which so much has been written and published. 

He first gave his pupils single desks, now so common, instead 
of the long benches and double or three-seated desks, still in 
use in some sections. He gave his youthful pupils slates and 
pencils, and blackboards. He established a school librar}^, and 
taught them to enjoy the benefits of careful reading ; he broke 
away from the old rule of severe and indiscriminate punish- 
ments, and substituted tlierefor appeals to the affections and the 
moral sentiment of children, so that he was able almost wholly 
to dispense with corporal punishment. He introduced, also, 
light gymnastic exercises, evening amusements at the school- 
room, the keeping of diaries by 3'oung children, and, in general, 
an affectionate and reverent mode of drawing out the child's 
mind towards knowledge, rather than the pouring in of instruc- 
tion by mechanical or compulsory processes. 



HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST. 69 

Among the eminent women who took an interest in his school 
ma}' be named, (besides Miss Martiiieau), Miss Margaret Fuller, 
Miss Elizabeth Peabody, her sister, the late Mrs. Hawthorne, 
and others. Both Miss Fuller and Miss Peabody were assistant 
teachers in the Temple scliool at Boston, and Miss Peabody 
compiled the accounts of it which were published under the 
title of '' Record of a School," and " Conversations with Chil- 
dren on the Gospels." 

Mr. Alcott was one of the originators and members of the 
somewhat famous Transcendental Club, which met under various 
names, from 1836 to 1850. It was first called " The Sym- 
posium," and met originally on the 19th of September, 1836, 
at the house of George Ripley, then a minister in Boston. In 
the October following, it met at Mr. Alcott's house (16 Front 
street), and there were present Mr. Emerson, George Ripley, 
Frederic H. Hedge, O. A. Brownson, James Freeman Clarke, 
and C. A. Bartol. The subject of conversation that day was 
" American Genius ; causes which hinder its growth." Two 
years' later, in 1838, we find it meeting at Dr. Bartol's in 
Chestnut street, Boston, where of late years the " Radical 
Club " often gathered ; there were then present JNIr. Em- 
erson, Mr. Alcott, Dr. Follen, Dr. C. Francis, Theodore Par- 
ker, Caleb Stetson, William Russell, James Freeman Clarke, 
and John S. D wight, the famous musical critic. The topic 
discussed was "Pantheism." In September, 1839, there is 
record of a meetino; at the house of Dr. Francis, in Water- 
town, where, besides those alread}^ mentioned, Margaret Fuller, 
William Henry Channing, Robert Bartlett, and Samuel J. Ma}^ 



70 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

were present. In December, 1839, at George Ripley's, Dr. 
Channing, George Bancroft, the sculptor Clevenger, the artist- 
poet C. P. Cranch, and Samuel G. Ward, were among the com- 
pan3\ Tliese names will give some notion of the nature of the 
Club, and the attraction it had for thinking and aspiring persons. 
In October, 1840, we find Mr. Alcott in consultation with 
George Ripley and Margaret Fuller, at Mr. Emerson's house, 
in Concord, concerning the proposed community, which was 
afterwards established at Brook Farm. In 1848, the Trans- 
cendental Club became the '^ Town and Countr}^ Club,'* on a 
wider basis, and in a year or two came to an end, having done 
its work. 

During this period of Transcendental agitation, from 1835 to 
1850, Mr. Alcott gradually passed through the various degrees 
of his progress as a reformer. In 1835, he gave up the use 
of animal food, and the next 3'ear invited Dr. Sylvester 
Graham to lecture in his school. Still earlier he had joined 
the Anti-Slavery society, when founded b\' William Lloyd Garri- 
son, and he was present at many of the celebrated gatherings 
of abolitionists — for instance at the Lovejoy meeting in Faneuil 
Hall, in 1837, when Wendell Phillips made his first appearance 
as an anti-slavery orator. 

In company Avitli Charles Lane, he examined estates in order 
to choose one for the proposed community, and finally Lane 
bought the " Wyman Farm," in Harvard, consisting of ninety 
acres, with an old farm-house upon it, where Mr. Alcott and 
his family, with J\Ir. Lane and a few others, took up their resi- 
dence in their new home '' Fruitlands ; " which experiment was 







^- "-^'^^kw^^^'^yj^^x,^ 



MR. Al.COirS HOME 



HO USES OF LITERAR Y INTEREST. 73 

not a financial success. He finally abandoned the farm, in 
poverty and disappointment, about the middle of January, 
1844. The lesson thus tauglit was a severe one, but Mr. Alcott 
looks back upon it as one of the turning points in his life. 
From that day forward, he has had less desire to change the 
condition of men upon earth than to modify and enlighten 
their inward Hfe. He soon after returned to Concord, and in 
1845 bouglit a small farm tiiere with an old house upon it, 
wliich lie rebuilt and christened " Hillside." A few years later 
when it passed into the hands of Nathaniel Hawthorne, he 
changed the name to " Wayside." It is the estate next east of 
the Orchard House in Concord. At '' Hillside " j\Ir. Alcott 
gardened and gave conversations, and in the year 1847, 
while living there, he built in Mr. Emerson's garden, not 
far off, the unique summer house wliich ornamented the grounds 
until within ten 3-ears past, when it decayed and fell into ruin. 
In 1848 he removed from Concord to Boston, and did not return 
until 1857. Since then he has lived constantly in Concord. 

In 1858 he became the Superintendent of the Public Schools 
of Concord, and wrote very admirable reports of them. 

He for a few years published many essays, poems, and conver- 
sations in the Boston Commonwealth and The Radical, between 
1863 and 1868, and in the last-named year brought out a modest 
volume of essays entitled "Tablets." This was followed, in 
1872, by another volume styled "Concord Days," and still other 
volumes have since appeared. Mr. Alcott has been pressed to 
write his autobiography, for which his journals and other 
collections would give him ample material, and it is to be hoped 



74 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

he will appl}' himself to this task. Should the work include 
his correspondence with contemporaries, it would be of ample 
bulk and of great value. 

At all times he was enamored of rural pursuits, and he prac- 
ticed gardening with zeal and success. His Orchard House 
estate, of a few acres only, was laid out and for years cultivated 
by himself. It was a favorite theory of Mr. Alcott's through all 
this period of agitation and outward activity, tliat he could prop- 
agate his ideas best by conversations. Accordingly, from 1839 
to the present time, a quarter of a century, he has held conver- 
sations on his cliosen subjects, and in many and widely separated 
parts of the country. In later times he has visited and spoken in 
the schools wherever he happened to be lecturing or conversing, 
particularly at tlie West, where he has been warmly welcomed 
in his annual tours. His home has been at all times a center 
of hospitalit}^, and a resort for persons with ideas and aspira- 
tions. Not unfrequently his formal conversations have been 
held there ; at other times in the parlors of his friends, at 
public halls or college rooms, or in the chambers of some club. 
Mr. Alcott has held opinions and engaged in enterprises, during 
his lifetime, which would not have commanded the entire 
approbation of his townsmen, had they been called to pass 
judgment upon them ; but with the general result of his long 
and varied life, neither they nor he can have reason to be dis- 
satisfied. He has not accumulated riches, nor attained political 
power, nor made labor superfluous and comfort cheaper by 
ingenious mechanical inventions. But he has maintained, at all 
times and amid many discouragements, the Christian doctrine 



HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST. 75 

that the life is more than meat, and that the perishing things of 
this world are of small moment compared with things spiritual 
and eternal. He has devoted himself, in youth with ardor, in 
mature and advancing years Avith serene benevolence, to the 
task of improving the hearts and lives of men, by drawing 
their attention to the sweetness of philosophy and the charm 
of a religion at once contemplative and practical. There is no 
higher work than this, and none that leaves so plainly its 
impress on the character and aspect of him who spends a life- 
time in it. 

Mr;^ Alcott was a daughter of Col. Joseph May, of Boston, 
and was born in that city, October 8, 1800. The Rev. Samuel 
J. May, of Syracuse, whose memoir has been quoted, was her 
elder brother, born 1T93. Tt was at his parsonage house in 
Brooklyn that she first met Mr. Alcott, in 1827, when he was 
teaching school in Cheshire, and it was largely on her account 
and tlirough the efforts of her family and friends that he went 
to Boston, in 1828, and took charge of the Salem street infant 
school. They were married jNIay 23, 1830, and resided in 
Boston until their removal to Germantown in the following 
winter. Their oldest daughter Anna Bronson, now Mrs. Pratt, 
(the mother of Miss Alcott's " Little Men ") was born at 
Germantown, March 16, 1831, and Miss Alcott herself (Louisa 
May) was born at Germantown, Nov. 29, 1832, A third 
daughter, Elizabeth Sewall, was born in Boston, June 24, 1835, 
and died in Concord, March 14, 1858. Miss May Alcott, the 
youngest of the four daughters, a well-known artist, was 
born in Concord, July 26, 1840, and died in Paris in December 



76 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

1879, having earned great fame as an artist, especially in her 
copies of Turner's pictures, in which one of ihe greatest critics 
of England pronounced her unsurpassed. She lived for a time 
in London and Paris, where she won hosts of friends, and several 
art prizes in the exhibitions. She married Mons. Nieriker, and 
died after a short illness deeply lamented, leaving a daughter 
Louisa. 

The eldest of the four sisters, Anna Bronson Alcott, named 
for her grandmother, was married May 23, 1860, the anniversary 
of her mother's wedding day, to Mr. John B. Pratt, of Concord, 
a son of Minot Pratt, one of the Brook Farm community in 
former years, and afterwards an esteemed citizen of Concord. 
Their children are the famous *' Little Men " — Frederick 
Alcott Pratt, born March 28, 1863, and John Sewall Pratt, 
born June 24, 1866. Mrs. Pratt was left a widow by the 
sudden death of her husband Nov. 27, 1870, and has since 
resided much of the time, with her two sons, at her father's 
house in Concord. 

Miss Louisa May Alcott, the popular writer of humorous 
and pathetic tales, owes her training, and thus her success in 
writing, to her father and mother more than to all the world 
beside. Her instruction for many years came almost wholly 
from them, and though her genius has taken a direction 
quite other than that of Mr. Alcott (guided strongly by her 
mother's social humor and practical benevolence), it still has 
many traits of resemblance ; while ihe material on which it 
works is largely drawn from the idyllic actual life of the 
Alcott famil3\ It can scarcely be remembered when Miss 



HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST. 77 

Alcott did not display the story-telling talent, either with her 
voice or with her pen. Her first book was published twenty-five 
years ago, and was Avritten several years before that. 
For a long period afterwards slie contributed copiously to 
newspapers and periodicals of no permanent renown, though 
some of the pieces then written have since appeared in her 
collection of tales. Her first great success as a writer was 
in 1863, when, after a brief experience as an army nurse, 
followed bv a long and almost fatal illness, she contributed 
to the Boston Commonwealth those remarkable '' Hospital 
Sketches." These were made up from her letters written home 
during her army life, and bore the stamp of reality so strongly 
upon them, that tlie}^ caught at once the popular lieart. They 
were re-printed in mau}^ newspapers, and in a small volume, and 
made her name known and beloved all over tlie North. From 
that time forward she has been a popular writer for the periodi- 
cals, but lier great success as an author of books did not begin 
until she found a publisher of the right quality in jNIr. Thomas 
Niles, of the Boston firm of Roberts Brothers, who have now 
published all her works for six years. Within that time the 
'' Little Women " and their successors have been published, and 
the sale of aU her books has exceeded a quarter of a million 
copies. Her earliest novel, "Moods," published in 1864, b}* A. 
K. Loring, of Boston, did not at first command much attention, 
but man}' thousand copies have since been sold. Her second nov- 
el " Work," was published by Roberts, in the summer of 1873, 
and at once had a great sale, both in America and iu Europe.. 
Manv of lier books have been translated into French and Ger- 



78 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

man, and there are now few living autliors whose works are 
so universally read. 

Th9 house of F. B. Sanborn is now building at the 
upper part of Main street at the bend of the river near 
the stone bridge. Mr. Sanborn came to Concord in March, 
1855, the year of his graduation at Harvard College. He lived 
in the house opposite Thoreau, (then the residence, of EUer}' 
Channino",) and took his dinners at the same house with Thoreau, 
and became a frequent companion of his daily walks and rows 
on the river. 

He started the Concord School which lasted eight years, 
at which were several pupils now noted in literature. He be- 
came interested in John Brown, whom he first brought to 
Concord in 1857, and who made his celebrated Kansas speech in 
March of that year, in which his simple eloquence inspired the 
citizens to open their hearts and purses for the relief of Kansas. 
He passed a portion of Ins last birthday. May 9th, 1859, at Mr. 
Sanborn's house, leaving at noon for his noted campaign in Vir- 
ginia, having spoken at the Town Hall on the previous evening. 
Funeral services of great impressiveness were held on tlie death 
of Jolni Brown, Dec. 2d, 1859, for which the liymn was written 
by Mr. Sanborn, and addresses were made by Emerson, Thoreau, 
and others. During the progress of these exercises Rev. E. H. 
Sears wrote his celebrated and prophetic ode to the memory 
of the old liero. 

On account of liis complicity and supposed knowledge of 
the plans of Jolm Brown, ]\Ir. Sanborn was summoned to appear 
to testify before a committee of the U. S. Senate, of which 



HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST. 



79 



Mason of Virginia, was the chairman. On liis refusal to comply 
with this demand, the United States Marshal with four men came 
to his house, and after calling him out on a false pretence, lumd- 
cuffed him and would have carried him away, had not his ^sister 
by her vigorous attack upon the men and their horses prevented 
them until her outcries had summoned a crowd of liis infuriated 
fellow-citizens to his aid. Judge Hoar issued a writ of Jiaheas 
corpus., upon which he was discharged the next day by Judge 
Shaw of the Supreme Court. On his return home the same 
day, April 4th, he was received by his townsmen with a salute 
of cannon and other testimonials of rejoicing, and a public meet- 
ing was held at which Col. Higginson and others made congrat- 
ulatory remarks. Mr Sanborn became an editor of the Com- 
mo7itvealth in 1863, and left it in 1868 to become an editor of the 
Springfield IlepuhUcan., with which paper he is still connected. 
In 1863 he was appointed by Gov. Andrew, Secretary of the 
Board of State Charities, in which Board he continued for 
twelve years, and with Dr. Howe, Dr. Wheelwright and others, 
reorganized the whole charitable system of the State, introducing 
many changes which have since been widely copied. 

For many 3'ears he has been a contributor to Scrihners 3Iont}ily^ 
for which he wrote the illustrated article on Emerson ; and 
an occasional writer in the Atlantic Monthly., in which his most 
noticeable papers were those on John Brown, upon whose biog- 
raphy he is now engaged. To this work he proposes to devote 
his best energies in order to make it worthy of its subject. His 
home has often oiven shelter to fug^itive slaves, and once was the 
place of concealment of two of John Brown's soldiers, when a 



8o THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

large reward was offered for their apprehension. He was one 
of the founders and Secretary of tlie Social Science Associ- 
ation, and, with Mr. Alcott, originated tlie Concord School of 
Philosophy. 

Of the many distinguished writers, who have from time to 
time made Concord their home, William S. Robinson ('' War- 
rington") is one of the very few, who were born in that 
rare old town. His ancestors were of English, and Welsh 
descent, and on both the father's and mother's side, had lived 
there for two generations. 

Lieut. Col. John Robinson, who " led the soldiers in double 
file," on the famous 19th of April, 1775, was a brother of Mr. 
Robinson's grandfather. His maternal grandfather, Lieut. 
Emerson Cogswell, (a descendent of one of the ancestors of 
Mr. R. W. Emerson) Avas one of the minute men of Concord, 
and a member of the Committee of Public Safety of that town 
during the revolution. This committee afterwards became the 
" Social Circle," and Mr. Cogswell was one of its founders. 

Mr. Robinson was born Dec. 7, 1818, in what is now called 
the '' old block," (near the Unitarian church) once his grand- 
father's homestead. He was educated in the public schools 
of the town, and at seventeen years of ao-e beg^an to learn 
the printer's trade. When twentj^-one, lie became editor 
and proprietor of the Yeomans Gazette^ afterwards called the 
Concord Republican. In 1842, the Republican was merged in 
tlie Loivell Courier and Journal^ and j\Ir. Robinson moved to 
that city, and became one of its editors. Subsequently he was 
the editor of the Boston Daily Wliig^ and the Boston Republi- 



HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST. 8i 

can^ leading free-soil newspapers of 1848-9. For nearly four 
years he edited and published a free-soil and anti-slavery news- 
paper which he had started in Lowell, called the Lowell 
American. He wrote letters and articles for the Boston Com- 
mo7iwealth, the Atlas and Bee; the New York Tribune^ the 
Eve7iing Post, and many of the other leading newspapers in 
the country. 

He was one of the founders of, and leaders in, the free-soil, 
and republican party. For tw^enty years, during the fiercest of 
the anti-slavery struggle, and the war of the rebellion, he 
wrote for the Springfield Bepuhliean. It was through his 
letters to this newspaper, that he became known as the re- 
nowned war correspondent, and made famous his nam de jylnme 
of '' Warrington." In all his writings, he advocated the 
freedom of the slave, personal and political purity, and the 
equal rights of woman. One of his most distinguished con- 
temporaries in the field of journalism said of him : " He was 
the sharpest, steadiest, truest journalist, in all the mighty battle 
for freedom." He was Secretary of the Constitutional Con- 
vention of 1853, and eleven years Clerk of the Massachusetts 
House of Representatives. 

His published works are, Warrington's Manual of Parliamen- 
tary Law ; The Salary Grab ; and a volume of selections from 
his writings, (Warrington Pen Portraits, with a Memoir by Mrs. 
Robinson) published after his death. 

He died March 11th, 1876, and lies buried in Sleepy Hollow 
Cemetery. 



82 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

William W. Wheildon was born in Boston, and as he often 
says, " drove his mother's cow to pasture on Boston Common." 
He was educated in the public schools, and when he was a boy, 
durino- the sickness of one of the carriers, used to distribute 
around the west end of the town, the " New England Palla- 
dium." In 1822, he went to Haverhill, as an apprentice to the 
printhig business with Nathaniel Greene ; returned to Boston 
with him and assisted in the issue of the first number of the 
American Statesman. In 1827, Mr. Wheildon established the 
"Bunker Hill Aurora," at Charlestown, and continued its 
proprietor and editor, until September, 1870, more than forty 
years: a complete file of the Aurora for all these years is now 
in the public library at Charlestown, and contains the material 
for a full and complete history of the town during that period. 
In 1846, Mr. Wheildon took up his summer residence in Concord, 
retaining his home in Charlestown, as a winter residence, until 
1856, since Avhich time he has remained in Concord. In 1863, 
while conducting his paper and managing his printing office, in 
Charlestown Square, he published his " Memoir of Solomon 
Willard," written as chairman of a Committee of the Bunker 
Hill Monument Association. Not being able to spare the time 
fully to write out the work, a large part of it was set up by 
him in type, without the use of manuscript. The proof sheets 
and other necessary reading, and some of the writing, was done 
while in the cars in the daily trips between Charlestown and 
Concord. In the composition of the whole work, and its prep- 
aration for the press, ^Ir. Wheildon never allowed one of his 
workmen to touch it, but did the whole work himself, in por- 



HO USES OF LITERAR V IN TERES T. 83 

tions of an hour or two of time whenever he could spare it. 
The forms were sent to Boston, and the press work done by 
steam power. Prior to this time, Mr. Wheildon had published 
liis " Letters from Nahant," and other pamphlets, on annexation 
and other subjects. 

At Ciiarlestown, Mr. Wheildon was a student at law, for two 
or three years, with Hon. Wm. Austin, and thougli never admit- 
ted to the bar, had a number of important matters entrusted to 
his care. He represented the Middlesex Railroad Co. before the 
Aldermen of Ciiarlestown, in a case affecting the riglits of the 
railroad, in regard to an enforced removal of their tracks, and 
the running of their cars ; again on the petition of the Monu- 
ment Association for the opening of an avenue from the City 
Square to Monument Sqnare ; and again in the interest of the 
Boston and Chelsea railroad and the Lynn and Boston railroad, 
and on other occasions. He also represented the city of Charles- 
town before tlie Commissioners in the matter of making Chelsea 
Bridge a free avenue ; also before the Commissioners on the 
Warren Brido-e and its snrrender to the Commonwealth. In 
the very important case concerning the building of the Maver- 
ick Bridge, as authorized by the Legislature of INLassachusetts, 
when the matter came before a Board of United States Com- 
missioners, at the Charlestown Navy Yard, ]Mr. Wheildon 
represented the city of Charlestown, the Wharf Owners, the 
Fitchburcr, JNIaine and Eastern railroads, and made the closing 
argument in tlie case. He also re[)resented the city and private 
parties repeatedly before committees of the State Legislature, 
and on one occasion before a committee of the Maine Legislature, 



84 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

at Augusta. Arguments covering the subject, in several of 
these cases, have been published in pamphlet form. Mr. 
Wheildon was instrumental in procuring the law for the pro- 
tection of the Lobster fishery, and read a paper on the natural 
history of the lobster before the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, which is published in their proceed- 
ings. At the centennial period of 1875, Mr. Wheildon was urged 
by a Boston publisher to write a history of the Battle of Bunker 
Hill — a service which he very reluctantly undertook to do, 
and when completed, having followed previous writers on the 
subject, he declined to have published ; but subsequently re- 
wrote the work, and it was published by Lee & Shepard " as 
a New History of the Battle of Bunker Hill: its purpose, 
conduct and result." This was followed, the next year, by 
his history of the " Siege and Evacuation of Boston and 
Charlestown." 

In 1877, Mr. Wheildon published from his private printing 
office, in Concord, his " Sentry or Beacon Hill ; the Beacon and 
Monument, of 1635 and 1790,'' entirely the work of his own 
hands, with the aid of the steam press, and is regarded as 
a ver}' complete and valuable addition to the history of the city 
and the times. It is very handsomely illustrated with heliotype 
plates and maps ; was prepared in behalf of the Bunker 
Hill Monument Association, and was published under their 
auspices. It urges upon the people of Boston the propriety of 
rebuilding the Beacon Hill Monument. 

Mr. Wheildon's next publication was in 1878, " History of 
Paul Revere's Signal Lanterns, April 18, 1775, in the Steeple 



BOUSES OF LITERARY INTER EST. 85 

of the North Church," etc., to which is added an interesting 
" New Chapter in the History of tlie Concord Fight." The 
decision of the question as to the location of the signal lanterns 
is considered as finally determined by this publication, and not 
only was the tablet erected on the strength of its conclusions, 
but the inscription, (necessarily brief from its elevation,) was 
furnished by the author. The city government, (the committee 
not having made any full report of the hearing before it,) finally 
became the purchaser of two hundred copies of the work. The 
volume is illustrated with a handsome heliotype of this cele- 
brated church. 

Besides his historical publications, Mr. Wheildon is the 
author of a small duodecimo volume of 230 pages, entitled 
verj^ happily, " Contributions to Thought," being a series of lect- 
ures, essaj^s, etc., some of which have been repeatedly delivered 
before the lyceums of the count}^ in past years. This hand- 
some volume, as well as all of Mr. Wheildon's historical works, 
has been very highl}^ spoken of and commended by the public 
press. His papers read before the Scientific Association, on the 
Atmospheric Theory of an Open Polar Sea, the Arctic Regions, 
Excursion Across the State of Iowa, the American Lobster, etc. 
are published in the volumes of the Association. 

Mr. Wheildon, though having the ambition of politicians in 
a very small degree, has held a number of public offices in 
Charlestown ; and was a member of the City Council, and of the 
School Committee for many years. In public associations and 
corporations of a more private nature, outside the borders of 
politicians, Mr. Wheildon has held many prominent positions. 



86 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

He was at one time, one of the Trustees of the Mass. Char. 
Mechanic Association, a Director of the Bunker Hill Monument 
Association, an officer of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, 
and a director in four or five business corporations. He is at 
present the President of the Boston and Chelsea Railroad Co. ; 
Trustee of the Five Cent Savings Bank of Charlestown, and 
director of the Charlestown Gas Co. ; Fellow of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science — a national asso- 
ciation — holdino; its charter from the State of Massachusetts ; 
member of the Historic Genealogical Society, Massachusetts 
Horticultural Society, etc. From 1848 to 1851, Mr. Wheildon 
was a member of the Social Club of Concord. 

Mr. Wheildon has matter in manuscript, relating to the 
Revolutionary War in Massachusetts, and other subjects, and is 
still a regular contributor to the public press of Boston ; and is 
with a single exception, it is believed, tlie oldest journalist of 
Boston, having^ been assistant editor of the Boston Statesman 
in 1825 and "26. 

Mr. Wheildon has also contributed the articles on The Con- 
cord Grape, The Masonic Societies, and on Walden Pond in the 
present volume. 

The Rev. Grindall Reynolds was settled as pastor of the 
Unitarian society on the 8th of Jul}^, 1858. His house stands 
on Main street, and is partially shaded by a magnificent elm. 
His garden abounds in flowers and fruit, and the Sudbury river 
flows at its foot. On tlie banks of the river grows a beautiful 
clump of willows, under wliich several boats are moored. As 
before stated Mr. Reynolds is a close student of history, and 



HOUSES OF LITEKAR Y INTEREST. 87 

has made many valuable contributions to magazines and books 
on that and kindred subjects. For full information on the 
history of Concord, and the important part taken by her 
citizens in the Shay's rebellion of which it is not in the province 
of this little book to treat, (as it is a guide-book, not a history) 
readers are referred to Mr. Reynolds' able paper on Concord, in 
Drake's Book, and to his pamphlets on Shay's Rebellion, and 
Concord Fight which are considered the most able and exhaus- 
tive papers on these subjects ever published. He has at 
various times published in the Atlantic and other magazines, 
articles of historical interest, a partial list of which is given. 

A discourse on leaving the old meeting-house at Jamaica 
Plain. 

A discourse on the death of Gen. Zachary Taylor, July, 
21st, 1850. 

A lecture before the American Institute of Instruction ; Mora] 
Office of the Teacher ; Parish Organization ; John Calvin; Ration- 
ale of Prayer ; Mexico ; Fortnight with the Sanitary Commission ; 
English Naval Power and Encrlish Colonies ; French Struo-g-le 
for Naval and Colonial Power ; Saints who have had Bodies ; 
Late Insurrection in Jamaica ; Borneo and Rajah Brooke ; 
Abyssinia and King Theodore ; Concord Fight ; Siege of Bos- 
ton ; From Ticonderoga to Saratoga ; Our Bedouins and what 
shall we do with them? The New Religion. 

William Munroe was born in Concord, Mass. June 
24th, 1806. 

His father, William Munroe, was a descendant of the Mun- 
roes of Lexington, of revolutionary fame, and was himself 



88 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

worthy of note as the first, and for many years the only manu- 
facturer of lead pencils in the United States. 

His motiier was of the Greenough family of Boston, and 
dauo'hter of Capt. Jolni Stone, architect and builder of the first 
brido-e connecting Charlestown with Boston. 

WilUam was the eldest of nine children. He was, in liis 
youth, conscientious, earnest, generous, and reliable ; and these, 
added to strict integrity, unfailing industry, and marked unself- 
ishness, were his ruling characteristics through all his business 
career, and to the close of life. As was recorded by one of his 
friends: "During his long life he was noted for his many acts 
of disinterested kindness, his career as a business man was 
most honorable ; he was straight-forward in all his dealings ; 
while those who enjoyed his friendship, found in him purit}^ 
of purpose, which gave a charm to his quiet life." 

He had a delicate constitution, and although prepared to 
enter college when quite young, a student's life was not consid- 
ered advisable for him, and at the age of fifteen, he entered a 
store in Boston, where he soon gained the confidence of his 
employers, and very early was entrusted with the care of pur- 
chasing goods in New York, and in Europe, and subsequently 
became a partner in the firm. He was afterwards engaged in 
business with parties in England, and this country, and finally 
became a member of the firm of Little, Alden & Co. Boston. 
He was one of the prime movers in establishing the " Pacific 
Mills " at Lawrence Mass. to the interests of which he gave 
the last few years of his business life. 

In 1861 his health failed, and he was obliged to retire from 



HO USES OF LITER A K V IN TERES T. 89 

active business. After an extended tour throiigh Europe, he 
returned to Boston, where he resided until 1876. 

He devoted much of his time during the hist years of his 
life, to making plans for the benefit of his native town, and 
especially for the erection and endowment of a Free Public 
Library, which he lived to see completed as it now stands ; and 
plans for the future addition of an Art Museum, etc., gave him 
occupation and delight during the man}^ weeks and months of 
severe bodily suffering which he was called to bear, and which 
terminated his life. He died at the home of his sisters, in 
Concord, April 27th, 1877, at the age of seventy-one. 



CHAPTER V. 



FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY. 



In its Free Public Library Concord feels a just pride. 
To the visitor it is one of tlie first and most attractive points of 
interest. 

The Library bnihling, though quite picturesque in appear- 
anc, is of no positive order of architecture, but rather a com- 
bination of the old and the modern st3des. From every point 
of view, it strikes the eye most pleasantly, and is a decided 
ornament to the town. The front view is particularly attrac- 
tive, suggesting a group of buildings rising successively one 
above the other. It is situated in a central and beautiful 
portion of the village, on the slightly elevated part of an 

acre of land, triangular in shape, at the junction of Main and 

90 



FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY. 91 

Sudbury streets. A full description of the building would 
require more space tlum can well be spared. The engraving- 
presents a good idea of its outward appearance from one point 
of view. 

The plans of the building, its construction, and the interior 
fixtures were completed under the direction, and at the expense 
of Mr. Wm Munroe, as a gift to his native town. The build- 
ino' and land adioining; were conveyed by him in trust to the 
Concord Free Public Library, subject to certain conditions and 
restrictions, as follows: '' To forever keep and maintain there- 
upon a building for a public library, for the use of the iidiabi- 
tants of Concord ; that no building shall ever be erected npon 
the granted premises, except for the use of the public library, 
as aforesaid ; and tlie ground not so used, to remain open for 
ligVit and air, and as an ornamental enclosure for the benefit of 
the inhabitants of Concord, but without a right in said inhabi- 
tants to go upon, or use the same, except for reasonable access 
to said library, under such regulations as may be made by said 
Corporation," etc. 

The building was dedicated for the use of the library on the 
1st of October, 1873, with ceremonies appropriate to the 
occasion. 

A circulating library has existed in Concord probably for a 
longer period of time than in any other town in the United 
States. 

Most of the early settlers in Concord, were men of liberal 
education and refinement, though, as with the Puritans gener- 
ally, the religious sentiment predominated far above the intel- 



92 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

lectual. " The religious bias of our founders," says Mr. 
Emerson, " had its usual effect to secure an education to read 
the Bible and hymn-book, and thence the step was easy for 
active minds to an acquaintance with history and with poetry." 

In 1672, the town, by a committee, instructed the select men 
to see " that care be taken of the Books of Martyrs and other 
books that belong to the town, that they be kept from abusive 
usage, and not be lent to persons more than one month at a 
time." How long previous to this record, that little nucleus of 
a library existed here, can only be conjectured, but as Bulkeley, 
Flint, and others, brought with them from England quite 
respectable sums of money, and personal property of various 
kinds, no doubt those " Books of Martyrs," and other books 
were among the effects brought into Concord by those religious 
enthusiasts in 1635, and freely circulated, to keep alive the 
sentiment wliich prompted them to seek this new home in the 
wilderness, and to sustain all its trials. 

During the next hundred years or more there were, no doubt, 
other books added to this collection from time to time, but to 
what extent is not known. 

In 1786, a literary company was formed in the village, with a 
collection "consisting of well-chosen books in the various 
branches of literature " which were purchased by subscription. 
In 1795, the Charitable Library Society was organized, and of 
the books of this Society, there is a copy of the catalogue now 
in the Concord Alcove, printed in 1805, which has two hundred 
and fifty volumes recorded. The members of this library 
united with others in the oro^anization of another, which was 



FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY. 



93 



incorporated in 1821. This was called the Concord Social 
Library. In 1835, it had 11G8 volumes on its shelves. No 
records exist to enable us to give all the statistics we would 
like in reference to the Social Library. It was owned by 
shareholders, and supported by contributions ; the shareholders 
pa} ing a certain sum yearly, and others a larger sum, for the 
privilege of taking out books, the money so contributed going 
towards buying new books and paying expenses. In 1851, tlie 
Social Library was merged into the Town Library. Two other 
collections, the Parish Library and the Agricultural Library, 
were afterwards added to the Town Librar}^ which continued 
in existence till the autumn of 1873. Its books were then 
transferred to the present Concord Free Public Library. 

The first iUinual report of the Town Library Committee 
ending March 1st, 1853 represents the number of volumes re- 
ceived from the Social Library to be 1,318, to which were added 
during the previous year 199 volumes. 111 by purchase, and 88 
by donation. The number of books taken out during that year 
was 4,288, the largest number in one day being 80, and the 
smallest five. A special appeal was made in this report, to the 
friends of the library, for additional contributions, which how- 
ever, was not responded to very liberally, for during the next 
year, only 18 books were presented, 131 others were purchased, 
making the whole number 1,663. When the Social Library con- 
veyed its property to the town, it bound the latter by contract 
to raise annually the largest sum allowed by law. The amount 
so raised in 1853 was fill. 75. The number of books taken 
out the following yearis not reported, but the use of the library, 



94 



THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 



the committee siiy, was " constant and increasing." In 1856 
the committee re[)orted with some exultation, that '' 295 vol- 
umes a month have been taken out, on an average thruughout 
the year." The report of 1858 says "the interest of the peo- 
ple in the library continues without abatement." 

The amount appropriated by the town, varied but slightly 
from year to year up to 1860, when the law seems to have been 
changed authorizing towns to appropriate fifty cents each of the 
ratable tolls, instead of twenty-five cents as had previously been 
the hiw. The whole number of volumes in the library in 1860 
was 2,762. With the larger appropriations from 1860, the 
library increased in a greater ratio from year to year up to the 
time immediately preceding its transfer to the present Free 
Public Library, Oct. 1st, 1873, when the number of the volumes 
was 6,887. 

Previous to the opening of the new library building, an ap- 
peal was made to citizens of the town, to natives who resided 
elsewhere, and to all lovers of old Concord, for donations of 
books, etc., tlie great object being to bring the number of books 
up to what is termed a first-class library, viz: 10,000 volumes. 
Such was the interest and enthusiasm excited by this appeal, 
that money, books, pamphlets, coins, medals, busts and pictures 
come in from all directions. There were one hundred and 
nineteen donors. The totals of the gifts were as follows : 
Money i3,570 ; books, 2,489 ; pamphlets, 1,360 ; three oil paint- 
ings ; forty-eight heliot3^pe impressions ; seven busts of promi- 
nent men ; twenty medals ; five hundred and sixty-nine coins ; 
and seven autograph manuscripts. One ladj^ sent a thousand 



FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY, 



95 



dollars; Geo. Wm, Curtis sent a full set of his works. Jas. T. 
Fields presented six autographs, viz; original manuscripts of 
'' Dorothy Q," by O. W. Hohnes ; - The Cathedral/* by J. R. 
Lowell ; '' Culture " by R. W. Emerson ; " Walking " by II. D, 
Thoreau ; ^' The Brazen Serpent," by Nath'l Hawthorne, and an 
address by J. L. Motley. Of the books presented, there were 
many rare and valuable ones ; one old Bible printed in 1598 
and other ancient and curious works covered with the wrinkles 
of age, containing autographs of the Bulkeleys, the Emersons, 
and the Riplej^s of old. 

Under these favorable circumstances, the new library com- 
menced its career of usefulness, and its success has more than 
realized the most sanguine expectations, " making," as Mr. Em- 
erson said it would, "- readers of those who were not readers, 
scholars of those who only read newspapers and novels till 
then," and greatly adding to the many attractions which make 
Concord a desirable place of residence. 

In the report of the Social Library in 183G, the committee 
congratulated the public on its increased love of reading. It 
says : " Judging by the number of books taken out, your com- 
mittee are hap})y to state that the library has been useful during 
the past year beyond all precedent." The number of books 
given out that year was 2,438, a less number than is now fre- 
quently given out in a single month. 

On commencing its work Oct. 1st, 1873, the Concord Free 
Public Library had upon its shelves nearly 10,000 volumes, ex- 
cluding duplicates. Since that date up to March 1st. 1880, over 
5,000 volumes have been added to the librarv, about half of 



96 



THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 



which have been donations, and the others by purchase, making 
the present number of volumes in the library a little over 15,- 
000. Besides books, there are over 5,000 pamphlets. 

Tlie annual circulation since the opening of the new library 
has averaged over 23,000. The largest number of volumes 







THE FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY. 



gis^en out in any one year is 26,000 and in any one month is 
2,868, and the largest number in any one day 278. 

A portion of the library room is devoted to reference books, 
and conveniences for consulting them. About 5,000 volumes 
are used here annually in addition to the circulation of the 
lending library. 

This seems a most extraordinary showing for a population of 
less than 3,000. Nearly ten books for every man, woman and 



, FREE PUBLIC LIERAR Y. 97 

child ; and including the books used in the reference depart- 
ment, more than ten to each person. It is doubtful if any other 
library in any town or city in the world can nndvc so favorable 
a showing. 

The reading room, which is separate from the library room, 
is liberally furnished with magazines aud otherr periodicals, by 
subscriptions and donations. By the last report March 1st 
1880, there were on the tables twenty-nine quarterly and 
monthly magazines, twenty-four weekly and two daily papers. 
The number of readers in this room varies from twenty to fifty 
per day, which should also be added to the previous statement 
of the reading capacity of Concord people. 

From the commencement, the new library has been extremely 
fortunate in securing and retaining the services of a very effici- 
ent librarian, Miss Whitney. Much credit is due to her for the 
interior arrangements and for the successful management of 
the library. The catalogue of books compiled by Miss Whit- 
ney is a most admirable one. All the books are alphabetically 
arranged and classified under the names of authors, titles, and 
subjects, with many cross-references. The books are all classi- 
fied, each subject, and each division of a subject being by itself. 

One alcove in the library is devoted exclusively to the books, 
pamphlets, etc., relating particularly to Concord. 

The reference department is a very important one. It in- 
cludes many valuable books in all departments of learning. Its 
advantages are seen every day, not only in connection with 
general readers, but with scholars from the higher schools; 
words, technical terms, names, dates, and places in history, 



98 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

geography and science, and illustrations and references in fiction, 
are made clear by the works in this section. 

Since the opening of the new library to the present date, a 
period of six years and five months, during which time over 
one hundred and fifty-two thousand volumes have been given 
out, not a volume has been lost or seriously injured, without 
being replaced by the borrower. 

The library is now supported by appropriations from the 
town, and by income from a permanent fund donated and be- 
queathed to the library by different individuals. 

The library is open every day except Sundays and holidays, 
from 9 to 12 A. M. and from 2 to 6 P. j\I., and on Saturday 
evenings from 7 to 9 o'clock. 

Visitors will be interested in examining the fine oil painting 
of Emerson by David Scott of Edinborough, painted in 1848 ; 
an oil painting of Columbus copied by Raphael Mengs from the 
portrait by Titian ; a copy of Stuart's Washington by Wm. 
Marshall ; an engraving of Emerson by Schroff made from 
Rouse's crayon ; a craj^on of Thoreau by Rouse ; a bust of 
Emerson by Gould ; bust of Plato ; Miss Landor's bust of 
Hawthorne ; Dexter's bust of Agassiz ; Gould's bust of Mr. 
Munroe ; French's bust of Simon Brown ; a bust of Horace 
Mann ; a picture of the old jail drawn by a British officer im- 
prisoned there ; the sword carried by Capt. Isaac Davis at the 
Concord P'iglit ; spontoon carried at the Concord Fight ; scis- j 

sors with which the cartridges were cut, and the anvil on which 
guns were repaired previous to the Concord Fight. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE MONUMENTS. 



The Monuments. The spot on which the British fought 
has long been marked by a pkiin, granite monument, a portion 
of the inscription upon which was written by Mr. Emerson. 

It was erected in 1836 and bears upon a tablet the following 

inscription : 

Here 

on the 19th of April, 1775, 

was made the first forcible resistance to 

British Aggression. 

On the opposite bank stood the American militia, 

and on this spot the first of the enemy fell 

in the War of the Revolution, 

which gave Independence to these United States. 

99 



lOO 



THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 



In gratitude to God, and in tlie love of Freedom, 

This monument was erected, 

A. D. 1836. 

For the side where the Americans fought, Mr. D. C. French, 

a young sculptor of the town, has designed a bronze statue of 




THE NORTH BRIDGE AND MONUMENT. 



the Minute Man of the day, with wonderful truth and vigor of 
action ; and it is visited daily by people who come from far and 
near, and the bridge, which has been built by the citizens of the 
town to copy the old North Bridge, is constantly being crossed 
by ever}^ description of vehicle, conveying passengers to stud}^ 
the details of tlie monument, as the costume of the expectant 
soldier, tlie old-fashioned plough upon which he leans, and the 
old flint-lock musket, vv^hich he grasps, are careful copies of the 



THE MONUMENTS. loi 

originals from which the young artist made the closest studies. 
Upon the granite base are cut the first lines of one of Emerson's 
liymns. It Jias been well said, " Few towns can furnish a poet, 
a sculptor, and an occasion." 

As they pass over the bridge on their return, even the most 
careless visitor pauses for a moment at the grave of the British 
soldiers, who, for a hundred years, have lain on the spot where 
they were hastily buried on the afternoon of the Fight, by two 
of the Concord men who made a grave for them just where 
they had fallen. No one knew their names, and they slept un- 
wept, save by the murmuring pines, with the very same rough 
stones from the wall which have been their onlj^ monuments for 
one hundred 3'ears until at the last centennial celebration the 
town caused this inscription to be cut on the stone which forms 
a part of the wall, '' Grave of British Soldiers." The avenue 
of pine trees was set out by the citizens in one morning, as each 
one brought and placed in the row a little sapling; and 
some of the towns-people are now able to tell which tree was 
planted by their ancestor. The two large trees which stood 
near the river Avere in existence at the time of the battle. 

The monument on the Common in memory of the soldiers 
who fell in the late civil war was erected April 19th, 1867. It 
bears on a bronze tablet tlie names of all the departed heroes 
"who found in Concord a home, a birthplace or a grave." The 
motto " Faithful unto death " is cut on the south side, and the 
dates of the beginning: and the end of the war are on the north 
side, Near it is an elm tree under which, according to tradition, 



102 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

the Rev. William Emerson delivered his famous speech on the 
morning of the fight. A hundred years later, when the descen- 
dants of the same men who fought that day returned from the 
bloody battle-fields of the south, bearing in honor the same an- 
cient names and assisted at the dedication of the monument to 
their comrades who w^ere " faithful unto death," the present Mr. 
Emerson delivered an address, standing in the shade of the 
same noble old elm, making true the lines in the ode sung on 
that day : 

" Beneath the shadow of the elm where ninety years ago 
Old Concord's rustic heroes met to face a foreign foe, 
We come to consecrate this stone to heroes of to-day, 
Who perished in a holy cause as gallantly as they. 

The patriot preacher's bugle call that April morning knew. 
Still lingers in the silver tones of him who speaks to you. 
As on their former muster fields called by its notes again, 
Thobe ancient heroes seem to greet brave Prescott and his men. 

And as each soldier saint appears to answer to his name, 
Not one has dimmed the lustre of its old unconquered fame; 
They, too, have left their peaceful fields for scenes of bloody strife 
And death has changed to hallowed ground the fields they tilled in life. 

The bronze and stone we proudly rear must surely pass away, 
But deathless lives of dying braves can never know decay ; 
For freed from stain of slavery, our re-united land, 
The soldier's proudest monument will ever firmly stand." 




THE MINUTE MAN. 



THE MONUMENTS, 



105 



An eloquent address was made upon this occasion by the 
Hon. E. H. Hoar, who also made a speech of welcome to the 
soldiers on tlieir return, which is remembered with pride and 
pleasure by all who lieard it. 



-*^'ft^' "%-' 









Kr ^m 







^K^^ 



^ Ai^'V^^ i <- 



THE MONUMENT ON THE COMMON. 



The 19th of April will ever be a memorable da}- in Concord, 
not only as the anniversary of the first battle of tlie Revolution, 
but because of its singular bearing upon the history of our whole 
countr}^ ; for we learn from Palfrey that in June, 1602, Gos- 
nold's ship, the Concord, left America on her return. Eighty- 



io6 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

six years after, on the 19tli of April, Sir Edmund Andros was 
imprisoned; eighty-six years after, on the 19th of April, the 
battle of Concord was fought ; eighty-six years after, on the 
19th of April, the first attack was made in Baltimore upon the 
Northern forces on their way to Washington, and on the same 
day the first company left Concord for "Washington, composed 
largely of descendants, bearing the names of the same men Avho 
fought in 1775. 

The Town Hall is behind the old elm, where the orators 
before alluded to have spoken ; and next on the right is the 
building formerly used as a Court House, behind which an old 
gate stood, within the memory of some natives of the town, 
which was the entrance to the field held in common by the forty 
original holders. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE STUDIO — THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP* 

The studio of Mr. Daniel Chester French stands in the 
orchard of the farm of his father, Hon. H. F. French, not far from 
the station of the Fitchburg Railroad. It was built in the year 
1879 in the modified Queen Anne style, after a plan of his own. 
It consists of two buildings united, the reception and the work- 
ing room ; the outside is finished to a height of ten feet in 
olive-green mastic, over which round shingles of Venetian red 
extend to the brown roof which rises to a height of nineteen 
feet from the entrance, which is twelve feet. 

The reception room is ornamented with antique furniture, and 
decorated with tapestry and curtains and pieces of Kensington 

107 



loS 



THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK, 



work. EndymioD, Echo, and other statues, and bas-reliefs of 
owls and other figures, are in this room, and the space by the 
door is filled with a deep window-seat of a quaint and rich 




MR. FRENCIIS STUDIO. 



design, with a tasteful combination of colors; and the space 
above it is filled by a bas-relief and Japanese and other orna- 
ments. The work room contains The Minute Man in tlie original 
plaster, his great group of Law, Prosperity and Power, busts of 
Emerson and Judge French, and many models aiid Avorks in vari- 
ous stages of completion. Mr. French's earliest important 



MR. FRENCH'S STUDIO. 109 

work, '' The Minute Man," wliich as before mentioned, 
stands on the scene of the Fight at the old North Bridge, 
was completed in 1874, when he was twenty-four years old. 
Before its dedication he went to Florence^ Italy, to pursue his 
studies, and while there, among otlier works of lesser note he 
modelled his " Endymion." After his return to this country he 
worked awhile in Washington, then in Boston, and in the 
spring of 1879 permanently established himself in his dearly 
loved town and built tlie studio. 

His bust of Emerson, showing in the best light the ripe ma- 
turity of the scholar, teacher and poet, is well worth the year's 
work if nothino' else had been done. 

Mr. French's colossal designs of " Peace and Vigilance " and 
" Law, Prosperity and Power," have been much admired, while 
his portrait busts are very successful. 

His swift advance in ]iis ten years devotion to his art, from 
the time when liis first clay was given him by the lamented 
May Alcott, to to-da}*, when his matured work commands praise 
from the severest critics, is a warrant that the studio and the 
sctdptor will long be one of the best attractions of Concord. 

The " Old Curiosity Shop." It would have delighted the 
heart of Dickens or Scott to be able to examine the remarkable 
collection of rare and curious articles which Mr. C. E. Davis has' 
for years been gathering, and which can be seen in his rooms at 
the Court House. It is in reality, nothing less than a " Curios- 
ity Shop," and embraces a greater variety of family relics 
than the great novelist ever dreamed of. 



no THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

There is scarcely a family in Concord whose ancestors have 
not contributed to this collection. There are dozens of sets, and 
parts of sets of old family china, from one hundred to two hun- 
dred and fifty years old — furniture once belonging to Peter 
Bulkeley, and brought by him from England in 1635 — many 
articles once belonging to Thoreau, among others, the cane bed- 
stead on which he slept in his hut in Walden Woods, and on 
which he died ; his desk and chair used at Walden, and the pen 
with which he wrote his last words — a very beautiful old 
clock, said to be at least three hundred years old, also an old 
chair, both of which belonged to Dr. John Prescott, who died 
in 1729 — a chair once belonging to John Beatton, who was 
town treasurer of Concord, and who died about 1776 — an old 
looking-glass belonging to the Minot family in 1705 — another 
looking-glass said to be seven hundred years old — an old bed- 
stead with curious curtains, brought from England in 1670 — a 
napkin used by Mary of Guise, mother of Mary Queen of 
Scots, also a piece of a curtain embroidered by the Queen — a 
workbox, used by Queen Elizabeth ; the former ownership of 
these articles of royalty, is well authenticated — a pitcher once 
belonging to Robert Burns, presented by his sister to Margaret 
Murry, and by her to Mr. Davis — an old book printed in 1628 
with the autograph of " Peter Bulkley, Concord Towne, 1640." 
— a sword of a British soldier, left in Concord in 1775 — a 
sword worn by Capt. Nathan Barrett at the Concord Fight — a 
British gun found on the road to Boston, April 19th 1775 — an 
Indian basket found on Lee's Hill, when the town was first set- 
tled — a part of the communion service used in the Concord 



THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP. iii 

church, in times of the Balkeleys — a coffee urn which belonged 
to Gov. Winthrop — a spear carried at the head of a Concord 
company two hundred years ago — Indian relics innumerable, 
and thousands of other curiosities which we have no room to 
numerate. 

No person should visit Concord without examining Mr. 
Davis' wonderful collection. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



VARIOUS ORGANIZATIONS. 



The Middlesex Mutual Fire Insurance Co. was organized 
March 29, 18-6. Its first President svas the Hon. Abiel Hey- 
wood, distinguished as a physician as well as for honorable 
service in town and state, as in later life he turned his attention 
from professional to public duties and was Associate Judge of 
the Court of Sessions, and as Justice of the Peace and Quorum, 
heard most of the cases in and about the town which were 
within his jurisdiction ; he was also town clerk for a period of 
thirty-eight years. He graduated in 1781, was married at the 
age of sixty-two, and died October 29th, 1839, aged 80 years. 
His monument of Scotch granite is one of the ornaments of 
Sleepy Hollow, and his memory is cherished by his townsmen. 
His son, Geo. Heywood, holds the positions of his father as Presi- 
dent of the Insurance Company, and town clerk, the books having 

I 12 



VA/^IOUS ORGANIZATIONS. 113 

been kept by them for over sixty-five years. He has also been 
for seven years in the Massachusetts House of Representatives 
and Senate, and is now a member of the Governor's Council. 
Its first Secretary and Treasurer was the Hon. Nathan Brooks, 
whose upright character and wisdom made liim the counsellor 
and guide of thousands, and his genial wit and kindness of 
heart will make him long remembered and loved. He was a 
successful lawyer in which profession he was succeeded by his 
son, the Hon. George M. Brooks, who has been in the Massa- 
chusetts House of Representatives and Senate, and United 
States House of Representatives, and is now Judge of Probate. 
The present Secretary is Richard Barrett Esq., and the organi- 
zation under the existing management is one of the most pow- 
erful and trustworthy in the State. 

The Charitable Society has been successful in relieving 
distress and almost exterminating pauperism from the town 
since 1814, to the present day, when it is more vigorous and 
efficient than ever, being managed wholly by ladies. 

The Fire Society was organized May 5th, 1794. Each 
member was obliged to keep in order a long ladder, and two or 
more fire buckets in a convenient place, and many of the latter 
are to' be seen hanging in the entrys of the old houses. The 
first fire engine was procured in 1794. 

The Middlesex Agricultural Society held its first show 
in Concord on the 11th of October, 1820, and formerly owned 
a tract of land in the center of what is now the area of Sleepy 
Hollow. Upon the sale of this land to the town they pur- 
chased the extensive grounds, and built the hall and other con- 



114 ^^^ CONCORD GUIDE BOOK, 

veiiieiices near the depot of the Fitchburg Railroad where large 
gatherings are held in the fall of each year. It has for a Presi- 
dent the noted manufacturer, financier, and scientist, John 
Cummings, Esq., and for a Vice-President John B. Moore, well- 
known as gardener, florist and lecturer, as well as by the fruit and 
veocetables which bear his name. 

The Concord Grape now so well known all over the coun- 
try, may properly be mentioned in this connection. This grape 
was produced by the scientific process of hybridizing, by Mr. 
Ephraim Bull, of Concord. It is believed to be a cross between 
the Isabella and the native wild grape, from which it was ob- 
tained. The grapes prior to this in Massachusetts were the 
Isabella, Catawba, Diana, and one or two others, all of which 
were more or less uncertain in ripening their fruit, as they are 
at the present time. The Concord was introduced to the public 
in 1855, and immediately became very popular, not only in New 
England, for which it was specially fitted by its early ripening, 
but all over the country. Nursery-men everywhere multiplied the 
plants as fast as they were able, and in a few years there were 
thousands of vines all over the country, as there are now mil- 
lions of them, in the numerous vineyards of the South and West. 

In 1852, Mr. James S. Lippincott of New Jersey, in the Agri- 
cultural Report of that year, remarks that many hardy north- 
ern grapes " find in lower latitudes and warmer zones a more 
congenial climate, and attain there a degree of perfection never 
reached farther north. Thus the Concord is so highly esteemed 
in some parts of the West, in lower latitudes, as almost to sur- 



VARIOUS ORGANIZATIONS. 115 

pass the Delaware." In some respects it does surpass the Dela- 
ware, which rarely ripens in the New England States. 

In 1868, in Iowa, 50,000 gallons of wine were made in Des 
Moines county alone, and it was said "the Concord is the 
favorite grape, though many others are grown." 

In Missouri, in 1868, it was said " thousands of pounds of 
grapes are now produced where one pound was grown twenty 
years ago." " The Concord maintains its reputation in all parts 
of the State." " The Concord with ample room, frequently 
produced one hundred pounds to the vine." Mr. Husmann 
" thinks it will produce the wine for the masses ; a life and 
health inspiring, gentle stimulant, destined to become the every 
day drink of the sturdy laborer, and supplant the fiery whiskey 
that has been too long the national beverage." 

In Wisconsin, in 1868, the Concord was the favorite variety; 
and in Michigan, it was said, the Concord and Delaware were 
the most extensively planted. In Ohio, the same year, 143,767 
gallons of wine were produced, largely from the Concord grape. 

It ripens early everywhere, and is admitted to be a good table 
grape, and some years ago, all through the West and Northwest, 
was regularly sold to passengers at all the railroad stations east 
of the Rocky Mountains. In the great region beyond the Mis- 
sissippi, as well as throughout New York, the Lake Region, 
Pennsylvania and Virginia, there are thousands of acres of 
vineyards a.id millions of vines. The nursery-men in the West 
ern States sell hundred of thousand of vines, one, two and three 
years old, and in some years were not able to supply the de- 
mand. It is entirely safe to say that no single fruit of any kind, 



ii6 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

ever produced, has ever been received with such favor, given 
such universal satisfaction, or been so widely spread, in our 
own, and to a considerable extent in foreign countries. It is 
still sold by nursery men in all parts of the country to a very 
large extent, notwithstanding the introduction of manj^ new 
varieties. 

Within a few years past a very large number of vines and 
cuttings have been called for in France and Germany, and it is 
said to be the only vine known which resists the phyloxera, 
which has so fearfully destroyed the vineyards of Europe. 

Mr. Bull at this time, is cultivating very extensively two new 
varieties of grapes, derived from the same parentage, which are 
said to be superior in many respects to the Concord, one of 
them ranks as a white grape. These have been named respect- 
ively, the Esther (white) and the Rockwood, and it is presumed 
will be offered to the public in 1881. 

In 1862, Mai. Adlum, who had the honor of introducing the 
Catawba grape, in 1823, thought that simple act a matter of so 
much importance, that he said in a letter to Mr. Longworth, '' In 
bringing the Catawba grape into public notice, I have rendered 
my country a greater service than I could have done had I paid 
off the national debt.''* 

If this be so, and we think the statement correct, it may well 
be asked what is due to Mr. Bull, who has created and intro- 
duced so valuable a grape and profited so little by his skill and 
labor in this cause? The hills and gardens of Concord speak 
his praise, and the whole country owes him a debt which it 
*See Agricultural Report, 1862, p. 508. 



VARIOUS ORGANIZATIONS. 117 

would be well if a portion of it, say one cent upon each vine 
growing in the country, could be paid ; it is eminently deserved 
and would be much less than is justly his due. 

The Concord Artillery was incorporated on Feb. 28th, 
1804, and first paraded on the following 4th of July. The in- 
scription on their cannon is as follows ; 

The Legislature of Massachusetts consecrate the names of Maj. John But- 
rick and Capt. Isaac Davis whose valor and example excited their fellow- 
citizens to a successful resistance of a superior number of British troops at 
Concord Bridge the 19th of April 1775 which was the beginning of the 
contest in arms that ended in American Independence." 

This company formed a portion of the regiment under the 
command of the gallant Col. Prescott which went from the 
town to the seat of the Rebellion on the 19th of April 1861, 
and many of its members enlisted for the war and followed him 
from Bull Run and the bloody field of Fredricksburg to the 
victory of Gettysburg, and through the many engagements be- 
tween the wilderness and Petersburg, where on the 18th of June 
he received a mortal wound and died the next day. These 
verses were copied in his funeral oration ; 

"Deck out your hills old Concord in all your summer pride, 
To welcome back your soldier who for Liberty has died. 
Trail in the dust your weeping elms along the silent street, 
And with pride and sorrow mingled, prepare your dead to meet, 
For he loved the gentle river, with its calm and peaceful shore. 
He loved the quiet village life, but he loved his country more ; 
For he heard her earliest call for help, and answering to the cry. 
Showed how a soldier oui?ht to fight, and a Christian ought to die." 



ii8 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

The Institution of Masonry, has always held a respectable 
footing in Concord, and, in its history, numbers among its mem- 
bers many of the most prominent citizens of the town. The 
Corinthian Lodge was organized in 1797, under a charter from 
the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, of the 16th of June, signed 
by the lAL W. Grand Master Paul Revere, of revolutionar}^ 
memorj', and by Isaiah Thomas, of equal historic eminence, Grand 
Secretary. In the organization of the lodge. Rev. Dr. Morse, of 
Charlestown, delivered the address, and at the dedication of the 
first hall, November, loth 1820, a Masonic address was pro- 
nounced by R. W. Benj. Gleason, grand lecturer of Massachu- 
setts. W. Isaac Hurd was first master, and Rev. Dr. Ripley was 
one of the early initiates in 1798. Among the masters of the 
lodge may be mentioned the names of Francis Jarvis, Benj. 
Ball, John Brown, John Keyes, William Whiting Ephraim H. 
Bellows,LouisA.Surette, Geo. P. How, and many others. Among 
its prominent members were Abel Barrett, Abraham Skinner, 
Thos. O. Selfridge, Grovesnor Tarbell of Lincoln, David Barnard, 
Gershom Fay, Nathan Heald, Rufus Hosmer, Samuel Ripley, 
Calvin C. Damon, Thomas Todd, Hartwell Bigelow, Samuel P. 
P. Fay, (afterwards Grand Master), and many others, including 
citizens of Acton, Lincoln, Carlisle, Stow, Bedford, Chelmsford, 
Dracut, Weston, Sudbury, and other towns. For many years 
the meetings were held in the hall of the building used for a 
school house, and afterwards as an engine house, opposite the 
Court House. In 1871, a new hall was erected on the Main 
street in the village, near the public square, which was dedicated 
on the 26th of Februarv, 1872, when a masonic address was de- 



VARIOUS ORGANIZATIONS. 119 

liverecl by R. W.William Willder Wheildon. The occasion was 
honored by the presence of the officers of the Grand Lodge of 
Massachusetts, M. W. John J. Heard, Grand Master. The 
lodge is now in a prosperous condition. 

Walden Koyal Arcli Chapter, which was organized in 1874, 
holds its monthly convocations in the new masonic hall. 

The Concord Bank was incorporated March 3d, 1832. 
Daniel Shattuck w^as the first President, and John M. Cheney 
Cashier. Mr. Shattuck continued in office until October 1860, 
when he was succeeded by George Hey wood. The Bank re-or- 
ganized under the National Banking Act, February 23d, 1865, as 
the Concord National Bank of Concord, retaining iNIr. Hey wood 
and Mr. Cheney. JNIr. Cheney died Feb. 13th, 1869, and was suc- 
ceeded by Henry J. Walcott the present incumbent. Mr. 
Heywood has held the office of President since the re-organiza- 
tion, and John M. Cheney was Cashier of this bank from its in- 
corporation until his death, thus holding the office for more than 
thirty years. Mr. Cheney graduated in 1821 in tlie class with 
R. W. Emerson, Gov. Kent, Judge Upham, Josiah Quincy and 
other noted men. Before his appointment as Cashier Mr. 
Cheney practiced law at Lexington and Concord. 

Water Supply. Sandy Pond, from whence the water is 
obtained which supplies Concord so abundantly, lies in the 
neighboring town of Lincoln, two and a lialf miles from the 
centre of Concord village. It is a beautiful sheet of water, 
coverino- an area of one hundred and fifty acres at its mean 
heio'ht, and varies onlv about two feet from its highest to its 
lowest elevation. The pond is capable of furnishing half a 



120 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

million 'gallons daily — enough for ten thousand inhabitants, 
allowing fifty gallons each per day. The character of the water 
is remarkable for its extreme purity, containing as it does an 
unusually small quantity of mineral and organic matter in solu- 
tion, there being only one and three fourths grains of solid 
matter in a gallon of the water. Prof. Goessmann says, so far 
as he is able to determine, its analysis places the water of Sandy 
Pond, as regards purity, first among all waters used in this or 
any other country. The average impurities in the waters from 
upwards of forty different sources in the United States and 
Europe, is 5.07 grains per U. S. gallon, the range being from 
1.77 for Concord to 16.38 for London. The mean elevation of 
Sandy Pond above ^lain street is fully one hundred feet, and 
when using hose, a stream can be thrown from a hydrant to the 
top of any building in town. Of all the blessings which Con- 
cord enjoj^s, this is certainly one of the purest and best. 

The Concord Lyceum was formed December 31, 1828, and 
the Debating Society which had been in existence six years was 
united to it. Its organization consisted at first, of President, 
two Vice Presidents (all clergymen), two Secretaries, a Treas- 
urer and three Curators, but for many years it has been chiefly 
managed by two Curators. 

Every lecturer of note in New England and New York states, 
has been heard before this organization, the most celebrated 
orators having made frequent addresses here, including Beecher, 
Curtis, Gough, Whii)ple, Phillips etc. On the occasion of its 
centennial anniversar}'. Judge Hoar delivered a most eloquent 
tribute to Emerson and others who had done much to sustain 



VARIOUS ORGANIZATIONS. 



121 



and cany it on. In February of the present year, Mr. Emerson 
delivered his one hundredth lecture before the Lyceum. The 
hall was crowded with his towns-people, and strangers wlio 
were attracted from Boston and other places, to listen to him, 
all were delighted to hear him speak with great power, — 
the lecture being by everyone considered as one of his best. 

Among the peculiar institutions of Concord are the Clubs. 

The Social Circle, the most venerable of these, was founded 
about 1782, and probably grew out of the famous Committee of 
Safety. It includes twenty-five of our most influential men, 
who sup together twenty-five times annually on successive 
Tuesday evenings. After the death of any member his memoir 
is read to the others and then preserved in manuscript. There 
has been only one instance of failure to do this, and the member 
in question left town some time before his death. 

The Farmer's Club, next in age, started about 1852, and 
contains some of the ablest agriculturists in Eastern Massa- 
chusetts. Essays are read and discussions held at the meetino-s, 
which conclude with a supper when held in private dwellino-s. 
At present the sessions take place in the Court House every 
Friday evening. The collection of essa3^s and reports of dis- 
cussions is large and valuable. 

The Dramatic Club, which is the oldest to which both ladies 
and gentlemen belong, Avas founded in 1875, has given several 
excellent comedies and an operatta in the Town Hall, and now 
occasionally reads plays at private houses to keep itself in train- 
ing for future triumphs. 

The Saturday Club. Among the most interesting of our 



122 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

literary and social meetings are those held by the Saturday 
Club, which was founded by Mme. Nieriker, then Miss May 
Alcott, on January 22d, 1876, and has continued ever since to 
assemble on alternate Saturdays, usually in the evening, at the 
houses of the ladies and gentlemen com]30sing it. There is a 
large membership, and many guests have been invited to the 
summer picnics, as well as to the so-called open clubs, before 
which such visitors as Dr. Hedge, Dr.Peabody, Professor C. C. 
Everett, Professor Davidson, Mr. C. D. B. Mills, and Rev. Wm. 
J. Potter have read their essays. Memorial meetings were held 
in January and February 1860, in honor of two of its mem- 
bers recently deceased, one of these being its founder. 

This lady designed this club originally for artistic study, and 
as her plan failed to be carried out, she established a regular 
Art Club which did much faithful work during the remaining 
months of 1876. 

The Shakespeare Club began its readings on January 29th, 
1878, some months after the dissolution of an older club of sim- 
ilar character. The ladies and gentlemen in the present club 
meet every Monday evening during about nine months of the 
the year. \\\ the summer vacation there have been some pleas- 
ant picnics, for which original poems and other papers have 
been contributed by the members and their guests. 

The Amatsurs. Another Shakespeare Club, which calls itself 
the Amateurs and meets every Saturday evening, was organized 
in March 13th, 1878, by some young ladies who called in young 
gentlemen as associates early in the autumn of 1879. 

Soon after this, the Musical Association, which had held 



VARIOUS ORGANIZATIONS. 123 

meetings and given concerts in previous years, was re-organized ; 
a Young Men's Supper Club, whicli meets on Tuesday evenino-s 
was formed; the Frolic Club of young ladies, who play games on 
the evenings of alternate Tuesdays, was started; and a number 
of ladies and gentlemen came together for reading and talking 
about their favorite authors on the Saturday evenings alternat- 
ing with the meetings of one of the older clubs. The year 
1879, in which all this was done, witnessed also the gathering in 
February by Mr. and Mrs. Place, of a little band of students of 
German who have read and acted dramas and played games in 
that language almost every Thursday evening since. 

The B. C. & W. Club has its room in Hey wood's 
block on the Mill-dam. This Club was established in 1858, and 
was " formed to promote social intercourse, and provide means 
of pleasant recreation among its members.'' Any gentleman is 
eligible for membership. The club is limited to forty m. em- 
bers. The club-room is open, on week days only, from 9 A. 

M. to 11 P. M. 

To complete the list of societies it should be mentioned that 
some admirers of Robert Browning began early in 1880 to read 
his dramas together, as had been done two years previons, and 
also that Concord, like other towns, hiis its Whist Clubs, Odd 
Fellows and Good Templars, its Sewing Circles, and Young 
Ladies'Bees, and its Afternoon Bible Classes. 

The writer must say in conclusion, that he is satisfied that 
the effects of the Concord Clubs on its social life and literary 
culture is extremely beneficial. 



CHAPTER IX 



THE SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY. 



The School of Philosophy. This is the newest institution 
of Concord, and is now about begiuning its second year. It 
was opened in 1879, at the Orchard House of Mr. Alcott, where 
the sessions were held in Mr. Alcott's library, and in the room 
adjoining, which had been the studio of IMa}^ Alcott, before she 
went abroad in 1877, on that pilgrimage of art from which she 
was never to return. In the coming summer, and in future 
years, the sessions will be held in a new hall, just built on the 
hillside west of the Orchard House, under the pine trees that 
crown the slope. It is a plain little structure, called " The 
Chapel," arranged for the convenience of the school, but with- 
out luxury or ornament. Over its porch is trained Mr. Alcott's 

124 



SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY. 



125 



largest grape vine, and on either side of it siiady paths lead by 
arbors to the hill-top 

The history of the Concord School of Philosophy, though 
brief, is interesting, and dates back farther than the year of its 
opening. So long ago as 1842, when Mr. Alcott, (then living 
at the Hosmer Cottage, where his daughter May was born) 
visited England, he began to collect books for the library of a 
school of tlie First Philosophy, to be established in some part of 
New England. For this purpose Mr. James Pierrepont Greaves, 
the English friend and disciple of Pestalozzi, who died in 
March, 1842, bequeathed a collection of curious volumes, which 
Mr. Alcott and an English friend, Charles Lane, brought over 
from London and deposited in Concord. For many years they 
have stood on the shelves in the Orchard House, and the}" are 
now destined to form a part of the library of the Concord 
School. In pursuance of his long cherished plan, Mr. Alcott in 
1878 arranged with his neighbor, Mr. F. B. Sanborn, to make a 
beginning, and early in the year 1879 a Faculty of Philosophy 
w*as organized informally at Concord, with members residing, 
some in that town, some in the vicinity of Boston, and others 
at the West. \\\ course of the spring, the Dean of this Faculty, 
Mr. A. Bronson Alcott, and the Secretary, Mr. Sanborn, 
issued a circular calling the School together for a session of five 
weeks in July and August. 

Mr. Alcott, as Dean of the Faculty, opened the School on 
the morning of July 15, 1879, with an address of welcome, and 
closed it on the evening of August 16, with a valedictory 
address. Between these two dates, the persons named be- 



126 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

low gave Lectures or Conversations on the following topics 
— occupying for each exercise a period of above two hours on 
the average ; — 

Lectures by Mr. Alcott. i. Welcome, and plan of future conversations. 
2. The Powers of the Person in the descending scale. 3. The same in the 
ascending scale. 4. Incarnation. 5. The Powers of Personality in detail. 
6. The Origin of Evil. 7. The Lapse into Evil. 8. The Return from the 
Lapse (the Atonement). 9. Life Eternal. 10. Valedictory. 

Lectures by Prof. IV. T. Ham's. i. How Philosophical Knowing dif- 
fers from all other forms of Knowing ; the Five Intentions of the mind. 2. 
The discovery of the First Principle and its relation to the Universe. 3. Fate 
and Freedom. 4. The conscious and unconscious First Principle in relation 
to human life. 5. The Personality of God. 6. The Immortality of the 
Soul. 6. Physiological Psychology. 8. The method of study of Specula- 
tive Philosophy. 9. Art, Religion and Philosophy in relation to each other 
and to man. 10. The Dialectic. 

Lectures by Mrs. E. D. Cheney. i. The general subject of Art 2. 
Greek Art. 3. Early Italian Art. 4. Italian Art. 5. Michael Angelo. 6. 
Spanish Art. 7. German Art. 8. Albert Durer. 9. French Art. 10. 
Contemporaneous Art. 

Lectures by Dr. H. K. Jones, i. General content of the Platonic Philos- 
ophy. 2. The Apology of Socrates. 3. The Platonic idea of Church and 
State. 4. The Immortality of the Soul. 5. Reminiscence as related to the 
Pre-existence of the Soul. 6. Pre-existence. 7. The Human Body. 8. 
The Republic. 9. The Material Body. 10. Education. 

Lectures by Mr. D. A. Wasson. i. Social Genesis and Texture. 2. The 
Nation. 3. Individualism as a Political Principle. 4. Public Obligation. 5. 
Sovereignty. 6. Absolutism crowned and uncrowned. 7. Representation. 
8. Rights. 9. The Making of Freedom. 10. The Political Spirit of '76. 

Lectures by Prof. Benjamin Peirce. 1. Ideality in Science. 2. Cos- 
mogony. 




A. BRONSON ALCOTT. 



SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY. 129 

By Mr. T. \V. lUtj^ginson. i^ The Birth of American Literature. 2. 
Literature in a Republic. 

By Mi'. Thomas Davidso7i. i. The History of Athens as revealed in its 
topography and monuments. 2. The same, continued. 

By Mi\ Emerson. I. Memory. 

By Mr. Sanborn. I. Social Science. 2. Philanthropy and Public 
Charities. 

By Rev. Dr. C. A. Bartol. i. Education. 

By Mr. H. G. O. Blake. I. Selections from Thoreau's Manuscripts. 

These subjects will give a general notion of the scope of the 
School in its first year. The courses of lectures (with excep- 
tion of Mrs. Cheney's, which were historical and biographical,) 
were distinctly philosophical, while the single lectures and pairs 
were either literary or general in their character. The conver- 
sations accompanying or following the lectures took a wide 
range, and were carried on by the students, the Faculty, and by 
invited guests, among whom may be specially named Miss 
Elizabeth P. Peabody and Mrs. R. W. Emerson, of Concord, 
Rev. Dr. Kidney, of Faribault, Minn., and Mr. R. G. Hazard,, 
of Rhode Island. By the courtesy of certain families in Con- 
cord, evening Conversations and Receptions, eight in all, were 
given at the houses of Mr. Emerson, Mr. Edward Hoar, Miss 
Ripley, Mr. Fay Barrett, Mr. Edwin S. Barrett, Mr. R. N. Rice, 
Mr. Alcott, and Judge Hoar ; thus testifying the hospitality of 
the town, and bringing the School into social relations with its 
people. The whole number of persons, (students, invited 
guests and visitors,) who attended one or more sessions of the 
School, was nearly four hundred, of whom about one-fourth 
were residents of Concord. Others came from New Hampshire^ 



130 ' THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, 
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North and South Carolina, 
Louisiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Colorado, California, Illinois, 
Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota. The 
average attendance of students was about 40 ; of the students 
and Faculty about 45 ; but at Mr. Emerson's lecture 160 were 
present, and at several of the other sessions more than TO. 
The receipts from fees and single tickets paid all the expenses 
of the School, without leaving a surplus ; thus showing that the 
scale of tuition and expense adopted was a reasonable one. 
This will therefore be continued in the coming year. 

So much for the details of this Academ}^ Its spirit can 
best be learned from a morning or evening spent at the con- 
versations — for its method of instruction, like that of its 
founder, Mr. Alcott, is chiefly by conversation. In the session 
of 1880 it has been thought best to make the school distinct- 
tively one of Philosophy, using Literature only as its vehicle 
or adjunct, and dispensing with Science, as commonly under- 
stood. A few lectures, perhaps, will be given to show the 
relation which natural science bears to philosophy, but the 
whole field of empirical and phenomenal investigation will be 
left for those who have a taste for it. Mr. Channing, the 
nephew and biographer of Dr. Channing, who returns from 
England this year for a visit to his native land, will introduce 
a new feature, the religious philosophy of the Orient, which 
has lately been set forth in one of its more popular forms by 
Mr. Channing's kinsman, Mr. Edwin Arnold, author of "The 
Light of Asia." It is not generally known that this poem, 



SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY. 131 

which has proved so popular in America, was introduced here 
through the Concord School. On the 4th of August, Mr. 
Channing sent an early copy of it to Mr. Alcott, accompanied 
by a letter in which he said : 

'' When your cheering programme for the ' Summer School of 
Philosophy and Literature ' reached me, my wish was to bid 
you God-speed in your most attractive enterprise of reviviug 
the ' Academy ' on the banks of Concord river, under the 
shadows of your elms. And now it is my happiness to have it 
in my power to prove my sympathy with the brave effort of 
you and 3'our compeers, by forwarding a book which will be in 
harmony with the spirit and aim of your circle of ' seekers 
after truth.' It is a poem called ' The Light of Asia,' in which 
the effort is made to bring before our modern age in the west- 
ern world that sublime embodiment of the finest genius of the 
Orient, in its prince, whom we call Buddha, in living form, and 
to trace the outline of his speculative and ethical system in 
vivid pictorial representations. If it could be my delightful 
privilege to join your group of fellow-students this summer, in 
dear old Concord, my request would be to read this poem aloud, 
book by book, with accompanying illustrations and comments, 
drawn from the rich mines of Buddhistic literature; and then 
to form a critical estimate of this ideal of Buddha, and his 
doctrine of life, measured by the standard of our purest philos- 
oplw, and by the Gospel, character, life, doctrine, precepts and 
influence of ' The Beloved So]i.' This poem only serves to 
deepen, enlarge and elevate my Christian faith. May that be 
the result with the circle of Concord seers ! " 



1^2 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

The volume was taken by Mr. Alcott to his publisher in 
Boston, and was soon reprinted in this country. It w ill, no 
doubt be a text for some of Mr. Channing's lectures, next sum- 
mer ; and this light from the East will be met by the Western 
Orientalism of Thoreau, whose manuscripts will again be drawn 
upon by Mr. Blake, for those refreshing fragments of liis pecu- 
liar philosophy, which was especially religious in its character, 
though not in accordance with any of the sects. 

The Concord Summer School will open for a second term on 
Monday, July 12th, 1880, at 9. A. M., and will continue five 
weeks. The lectures will be arranged in courses of five or 
three, in pairs, and by single lectures ; and in each week there 
will be eleven. They will be given morning and evening, 
except Saturday evenings, on the six secular days (in the morn- 
ing at 9 o'clock, and in the evening at 7.30) at the Hllhide 
Chapel^ near the Orchard House. The list of lecturers and 
subjects will be found on the following page. 

The terms will be ^3 for each of the five weeks ; but each 
regular student will be required to pay at least $10 for the 
terra, which permit him to attend during three weeks. The 
fees for all the courses will be $15. Board may be obtained in 
the village at from $6 to $12 a week — so that students may 
estimate their necessary expenses for the whole term at $50. 
Single tickets at 50 cents each, will be issued for the conve- 
nience of visitors, and these may be bought at the sliop of H. 
L. Whitcomb, in Concord, after July 1st, 1880, in packages of 
twelve for $4.50, of six for $2.50, and of three for $1.25. It is 
expected that the applications for course tickets will exceed the 



SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY. 



T -^^ 
A -^ -^ 



number which can be issued. Any one can engage tickets by 
making application at once and sending ^b as a guaranty. For 
those who make this deposit, tickets will be reserved till the first 
day of July, 1880, and can then be obtained by payment of the 
balance due. Course tickets at |15 will entitle the holders to 
reserved seats, and $10 tickets will entitle to a choice of seats 
after the course ticket holders have been assigned seats. 

All students should be registered on or before July 1st, 1880, 
at the office of the Secretary, in Concord. No preliminarj^ 
examinations are required, and no limitation of age, sex, or 
residence in Concord will be prescribed; but it is recommended 
that 23ersons under eighteen years should not present themselves 
as students, and that those who take all the courses should 
reside in the town during the term. The Concord Public 
Library of 16,000 volumes, will be open every day ft)r the use 
of residents. Students coming and going daily during the 
term, may reach Concord from Boston bv the Fitchburg Rail- 
road, or the jNIiddlesex Central ; from Lowell, Andover, etc., by 
the Lowell and Framingham Railroad ; from Southern Middle- 
sex and Worcester Counties by tlie same road. The Orchard 
House stands on the Lexington road, east of Concord village, 
adjoining the Wayside estate, formerl}^ tlie residence of Mr. 
Hawthorne. 

LIST OF LECTURERS AND SUBJECTS. 

Mr. A. Bronson Alcott. Five lectures on Mysticism, i. St. John the 
Evangelist. 2. Plotinus. 3. Tauler and Eckart. 4. Behmen. 5. Sweclen- 



borg. 



Mr, Alcott will also deliver the Salutatory and Valedictory, and will have 
general charge of the conversations of the School. 



134 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

Dr. H. K. Jones. Five Lectures on the Platonic Philosophy, and five on 
Platonism in its Relation to Modern Civilization, i. Platonic Philosophy; 
Cosmologic and Theologic Outlines. 2. The Platonic Psychology; The 
Dcemon of Socrates. 3. The Two Worlds, and the Twofold Consciousness. 
The Sensible, and the Intelligible. 4. The Eternity of the Soul, and its Pre- 
existence. 5, The Immortality and the Mortality of the Soul ; Personality 
and Individuality ; Metempsychosis. 6. The Psychic Body and the Material 
Bodv of Man. 7. Education and Discipline bf Man ; The Uses of the 
World w^e Live in. 8. The Philosophy of Law. 9. The Philosophy of 
Prayer, and the '' Prayer Gauge." 10. Spiritualism, Ancient and Modern. 

Prof. W. T.Harris. Five Lectures on Speculative Philosophy, viz: i. 
Philosophic Knowing. 2. Philosophic First Principles. 3. Philosophy and 
Immortality. 4. Philosophy and Religion. 5. Philosophy and Art. 

Five lectures on the History of Philosophy, viz : i. Plato. 2. Aristotle. 
3. Kant. 4. Fichte. 5. Hegel. 

Rev. J. S. Kidney, D.D. Three Lectures on the Philosophy of the Beau- 
tiful and the Sublime. 

Mr. Denton. J. Snider. Five Lectures on Shakespeare, i. Philosophy 
of Shakespearean Criticism. 2. The Shakespearean World. 2. Principles 
of Characterization in Shakespeare. 4. Organism of the Individual Drama. 
5. Organism of the Universal Drama. 

Rev. W. H. Channing. Four Lectures on Oriental and Mystical Philoso- 
phy. I. Historical Mysticism, 2. Man's Fourfold Being. 3. True Buddh- 
ism. 4. Modern Pessimism. 

Mrs. E. D. Cheney. Two Lectures, i. Color, 2. Early American Art. 

Mrs. Julia Ward Howe. A Lecture on Modern Society. 

Mr. John Albee. Two Lectures, i. Figurative Language, 2. The Lit- 
erary Art. 

Mr. F. B. Sanborn. Two Lectures on The Philosophy of Charity. 

Dr. Elisha Mulford. Two Lectures, i. The Personality of God. 2. 
Precedent Relations of Religion and Philosophy to Christianity. 

Mr. H. G. O. Blake. Readings h'om Thoreau's Manuscripts. 



SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY. 135 

Prof. Benjamin Pierce. A Lecture. 

Rev. Dr. Bartol. A Lecture — The Quandary. 

Prof. Andrew P Peabody, A Lecture — Conscience and Personality. 

Mr R. W. Emerson. A Lecture. 

Dr. F. H. Hedge. A Lecture. 

Prof. G. H. Howison. A Lecture. 

Mr. D. A. Wasson. A Lecture . 

A BRONSON ALCOTT, Dean. 
S. H. EMERY, JR Director 
F. B. SANBORN, Secretary. 



CHAPTER IX 



LAKE WALDEN. 



Lake Walden. This pleasant and popular resort which lies 
immediately on the line of the Fitchburg Railroad, is one of 
the marked features of Concord, socially and geographically 
speaking, and besides this, has something of history attached to 
it. It was not prominent in the revolutionary war, but was, no 
doubt, a favorite resort of the Musketaquid and Nashoba Indians, 
and very likely, was frequently visited by the Hon. Peter 
Bulkeley, the Rev. John Eliot of Roxbury, Simon Willard and 
others — for these were all friends of the 'Spraying Indians," 
who made a sort of Bible for them, one of the ordinances of 
which was, that " no Indian shall take an Englishman's canoe." 
Of this famous pond, a writer has said, " successive nations per- 

136 



LAKE WALDEN. 139 

chance, have drank it, admbed and fathomed it, and still its 
water is green and pellucid as ever;" and Thoreau thinks, when 
Adam and Eve were driven out of Eden, " Walden Pond might 
have been covered with myriads of ducks which had not heard 
of the fall, when such pure lakes sufficed them." From time 
immemorial, Walden Pond has been a beautiful and retired 
spot, and though the town has been a large contributor of terri- 
tory to the adjoining towns of Lincoln, Bedford, Carlisle, etc., 
it has never shown a disposition to part with Walden Pond. 
But besides its own claim to quiet, to scenery and popularity, 
whether ancient or modern, Henry D. Thoreau has added to its 
histor}^ or mythology, and perhaps we may say, its literature. 
He says, " The scenery of Walden Pond, is on an humble scale, 
and though ver}^ beautiful does not approach to grandeur." It 
is not mountainous, nor is it monotonous, but pleasant, beauti- 
ful, lovely and always full of interest. " It is a clear and deep 
green well, half a mile long and a mile and three quarters in 
circumference : a perennial spring in the midst of a pine and 
oak woods, without any visible inlet or outlet except by the 
clouds and evaporation." The surrounding shores are compar- 
atively without beaches, and the land rises within a quarter of a 
mile, to the height of forty to a hundred feet above the level of 
the water ; and the level of the water is forty or fifty feet above- 
the level of Concord River. 

There is no end of talking about Walden Pond, if one is dis- 
posed to keep up the conversation ; though there are some 
Indian lef^ends not worth repeating. It is a picturesque sheet 



140 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

of water, and as tlie water-shed is insignificant, is undoubtedly 
supplied from springs at a distance, and is not affected by any 
drought of long continuance ; yet, according to Thoreau's 
observations, it is subject to a rise and fall of five or six feet — 
a statement which frequent visitors to the Pond at different 
seasons of the year, are not able to realize. 

One of the first public uses of Walden Pond and its sur- 
rounding groves, was for a public celebration of the freeing of 
the slaves in the British West India Islands, by the British 
Government. On this occasion flags were thrown across the 
railroad track in the vicinity, and the ground speciall}* deco- 
rated with the flag of a free people. All the leading anti-slavery 
men of the time were present, including Hon. Samuel Hoar 
and Ralph Waldo Emerson, of Concord, Lloyd Garrison, 
Wendell Phillips, and numerous other gentlemen of note. Since 
this time. Lake Walden, as it is now called, has become one of 
the most popular summer resorts in the neighborhood of Boston, 
for the social meetings of associations, Sunday-schools, church 
festivals, Fourth of July picnics, temperance meetings, spirit- 
ualistic encampments, and latterly for the excursions of the 
poor children of Boston, in which the people of Concord have 
of recent years taken so much interest. The grounds are 
furnished with seats, swings, dining-hall, dancing-hall, speaking- 
room with seats, boats for excursions over the lake, bath houses, 
etc., and is now to be provided with base ball grounds. The 
walks are delightful and are occasionallj^ extended to Concord 
village, only about one mile distant. The first picnic party of 



LAKE WALDEN. 141 

the season passed a delightful day at Lake Walden, on the 8th 
of May, this year, and in the coarse of the forenoon made a 
visit in procession to the points of historic and literary interest 
in Concord. The lake must be regarded in many respects as 
a lustrous jewel in the coronet of the town. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE RIVER AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 

Concord River begins at Egg Rock where it is formed by 
the junction of the Sudbury and Assabet; the former rising 
in Hopkinton and Westborough, and the latter in Grafton. It 
varies in depth from two to fifteen feet, and from one hundred 
to three hnndred feet in width. In oklen time its waters 
abounded in shad and salmon, which were so plentiful that it is 
stated in tlie records of the colony that " no apprentice can be 
compelled to eat salmon more than five days in the week/' but 
now only miserable little perch, pout, and breams reward the 
constant anglers who frequent the banks. Skilful fishermen can 
secure pickerel of from half a pound to four pounds in weight, 
and the black bass with which the bay was stocked, occasionally 

142 



THE RIVER AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 145 

surprise them. The Assabet or North Branch, having a fall of 
about thirty feet, manages to partially carry 011 ]\Ir. Damon's 
cotton factory at Westvale, and to assist a little at the pail fac- 
tory, but the Concord River proper is fortunately too sluggish 
for work, and for that reason affords the perfection of boating 
which is its chief charm, and thus gives amusement to hun- 
dreds in the town and state. The Sudbury or South Branch 
runs nearly in a line with Main street, and forms a canal which 
in the pleasant season is even more used than the street. Every 
family has its boats, over seventy being kept between the old 
and new stone bridges, a distance of about two miles, and on a 
pleasant evening one is more likely to meet friends on the 
river than on the roads. Children of ten j^ears sometimes man- 
age a boat alone, and old men with white beards seem still to 
enjoy a quiet roAV. Friends from nearly every state in the 
Union find their way up the Assabet in the course of a summer, 
and views of the quiet scenery are carried with them to their 
busy homes. The town has no attraction to compare with it, as 
nearly every day some trip is made by a picnic party to some of 
its lovely spots. Space forbids much description of the roman- 
tic places with which the river abounds, so the reader is referred 
to the series of articles in the Wide Awake magazine, called 
" Concord Picnic Days," in which they will be fully illustrated 
with pen and pencil. Brief mention will be made of them in 
sketching the chief routes of the river trips which are short 
enough to be enjoyed by the summer day sojourner, starting 
from Egg Rock, which is the meeting place of the boats from 
up and down river. The mouth of the Assabet, as has been 



146 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

stated is at Egg Rock, and ascending it on the left bank are the 
old hemlocks of which Hawthorne speaks in the *' Mosses from 
an Old Manse," and of which every poet, philosopher and story 
teller of Concord has delighted to sing the praise. Before the 
Lowell R. R. destroyed man}" of these trees, one could row in 
eight minutes from the bridge near the village, into the grand 
solitude of the forest, and since tender hands have planted wil- 
lows to mourn over the fallen giants, and hide the railroad bank, 
it is beautiful even in desolation. Half a mile farther and the 
river seems again shut in like a lake, and the vines tangled 
among the trees and graceful black willows seem as wild as 
when the Indians knew them. This romantic spot is the sup- 
posed scene of the following lines, copied from Poems of Places. 

FLOATING HEARTS. 

One of Indian summer's most perfect days 
Is dreamily dying in golden haze. 
Fair Assabet blushes in rosy bliss. 
Reflecting the sun's warm good-night kiss. 
Through a fleet of leaf-barques, gold and brown. 
From the radiant maples shaken down. 
By the ancient hemlocks, grim and gray 
Our boat drifts slowly on its way ; 
Down past Egg Rock and the meadows wide, 
'Neath the old red bridge we slowly glide, 
Till we see the Minute-man, strong and grand. 
And the moss-grown Manse in the orchard land. 

" The boat is as full as a boat should be, 
Just nobody in it but you and me." 



THE RIVER AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 147 

As brown as the leaves are her beautiful eyes, 
And as graceful her hand on the water lies 
As she catches the leaves which languid float 
On the lazy current along the boat. 
Now she asks its name as she tears one apart — 
" Fair lady that is a * floating heart.' " 

Sad wrecks of years have drifted down 
In the dreamless ocean to sink and drown 
Since the beautiful eyes saw that lovely night 
And haloed the river with visions bright, 
But the floating heart that was caught that day 
Has never been able to get away. 

In order to show that the river worship is not confined to 
natives of the town, this graphic sketch by Mrs. Dehmo Godd- 
ard is copied here : 

"Concord itself is like no other town; it seems utterly un- 
disturbed by the turmoil and agitation of life, utterly free from 
worldly ambition or petty rivalries of any sort. The hospitality 
of its people is boundless ; and so is their refined kindness, and 
the beautiful village seems the one spot where there is abiding 
" peace on earth and good will to men." Besides its historic 
associations, its monuments, its library, and best of all, its peo- 
ple, Concord has its slow, lovely river, of which Thoreau wrote: 
' Concord river is remarkable for the gentleness of its current. 
I have read that the descent of an eighth of an inch in a mile 
is sufficient to produce a flow. Our river has, probably, very 
near the smallest allowance. The story is current, at any rate 
though I believe that strict history will not bear it out, that the 



I4S THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

only bridge ever carried away on the main branch, within the 
limits of the town was driven np stream by the wind. The 
sluo'o-ish arterv of the Concord meadows steals thus unobserved 
througli the town, without a murmur or a pulse-beat, its general 
course from southwest to northeast, and its length about fifty 
miles ; a huge volume of water, ceaselessly rolling through the 
plains and valleys of the substantial earth, with the moccasined 
tread of an Indian warrior, making haste from the high places 
of the earth to its ancient reservoir." 

The main street of the town is parallel with the river, and the 
comfortable row of old houses which face the street have gardens 
at the back sloping down to the water. The numerous land- 
ings, each with its little fleet of boats, dories, canoes, wherries 
or other small outriggers, make the river very picturesque and 
add greatly to tlie charm of boating in it. The morning we 
were there we idled for hours on the stream, guided by one who 
knows every inch of its windings ; we rowed across the sunny 
reaches, floated ' mid lucid shallows, just eluding water-lily 
leaves,' pushed under the trees and drank of the spring of liv- 
ing water, which gushes out there in some sylvan hiding-place ; 
and let the boat rest in the very spot that Hawthorne describes 
in his*' Mosses from an Old Manse," where " there is a lofty 
bank on the slope of which grow some hemlocks, declinino- 
across the stream with outstretched arms as if resolute to take 
the plunge." Only a few are left now ; some as our friend said, 
bent every year closer and closer to the water, and the quiet 
stream lapped the earth at their roots, till one by one they 
silently dropped into tlie river, and floated away. Otliers did 



THE RIVER AND 17 S SURROC/NDINGS. 



149 



not have that peaceful death, but were cut clean away to make 
room for the new raih'oad which lias replaced tliem by a staring 
" ^jt- -""".^i:^^^^^^^^^ ^;r' . . bank of yellow sand, mak- 
ing a long, aggressive scar 
i'^^r' <^i^ the beautiful 
shore. Heal- 
ing hands of 

artist 




THE HEMLOCKS 



and poet 
have set 
willows 
tliick in tlie 
sand, and 
^oon the unsightly 
)ank will be green 
soft, though tlie 
•'~^^?-^^fa. hemlocks can never 
_a a grow again. It might 

liave been our day on the 
river that Hawthorne wrote about. 
For us, too, '' the winding course of 



T^o THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

the stream continually shut out the scene behind us and revealed 
as calm and lovely a one before. We glided from depth to depth, 
and breathed new seclusion at every turn. The shy kingfisher flew 
from the withered branch close at hand to another at a distance, 
uttering a shrill cry of anger or alarm. Ducks that had been 
floating there since the preceding eve were startled at our ap- 
proach, and skimmed along the grassy river, breaking its dark 
surface with a bright streak. The turtle, sunning itself upon a 
rock or at the root of a tree, slid suddenly into the water with 
a plunge.' But we saw one congregation of seven turtles on a 
fallen tree out in the river, and they went on sunning them- 
selves and never minded us at all, but disappeared in a flash, or 
rather in seven flashes, \\ hen a boat load of boys paddled up to 
them with a whoop of delight. 

Like Hawthorne, we too found in July the prophecy of 
autumn. A few tall maples were the color of the purple beech, 
a rare color for maples to take, on, and fallen crimson leaves 
flecked the water here and there, and the golden rods were 
marshalled in stately ranks just ready to unfold tlieir superb 
yellow plumes ; and with all the peace and beauty came, too, 
the 'half-acknowledged melancholy,' tlie feeling ' tliat Time 
lias now given us all his flowers, and that the next work of his 
never idle fingers must be to steal them one by one away.' 

Concord is rich in wild flowers and meadow grasses ; and 
wlien one sums up its charms of philosophy and literature, art 
and nature, in a.ldition to some of the most delightful people in 
the woi-ld, the story seems a little fabulous ; but it is all true, 



THE RIVER AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 151 

•and yet is not half the truth, for that would require better and 
warmer words than mine to tell." 

Passing Gibralter we come to pleasant meadows on the right 
bank, and glimpses of a quiet country road. Here again the 
railroad spans it witli a bridge, opposite which are the Barrett 
houses previously described. The navigation is here somewhat 
obstructed by the rocks and great trunks of fallen trees, and 
the river winds around until the road is reached which usu- 
ally concludes the trip toward the West. At this point is 
the field where in 1859 Gen. Banks held his famous muster of 
ten thousand militia. This large sandy tract known as the 
Cook farm was afterwards purchased b}^ the State for the site of 
a prison to take the place of the one at Charlestown. Fine 
buildings have been erected, and in June 1878 the convicts were 
established in their new quarters under the able wardenship of 
Gen. S. E. Chamberlain, who has a high record for bravery in 
the ^Mexican and Civil wars. From this eistablishmeut and the 
junction of the Fitchburg, Framingham and Lowell Middlesex 
Central, and Nashua and Acton Railroads, and the extensive 
pail works of ]\Ir. Warner, the village of Warnerville or Con- 
cord Junction, has rapidly grown to such dimensions as to be al- 
most a town of itself, and shows signs of great enterprise and 
progress in the future. 

Sailing down the Concord river near the Red bridge, we pass 
River Cottage, the home of G. Keyes, Esq.. formerlv the farm of 
Hon. Simon Brown, Lt. Gov. of the State, and Librarian of the U. 
S. House of Representatives at Washington for years. Mr. Brown 
was editor of the Xew England Farmer, and by his tongne and 



152 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

pen has given an impetus to the higher branches of Agriculture. 
He was honored in life and mourned in death, as only those of 
Christian worth and manly dignity of character deserve. The 
next place on the bank is "Battle-Lawn," the home of Edwin S. 
Barrett, Esq., which is a model of architectural beauty in its out- 
side and interior finish. One of the high antique fire places 
built in part of wood from the Old North Bridge bears a line 
of Emerson's famous verse " Here once the embattled farmers 
stood," as the old road down which the soldiers marched to 
battle crossed this very spot. Here the large tent was pitched 
in which Mr. G. W. Curtis delivered his eloquent oration on the 
Centennial Anniversary of Concord Fight, April 19th, 1875. A 
vast concourse of citizens of note, including Gen. Grant and 
his cabinet were present. The procession which contained over 
thirty thousand people, was marshalled by Gen. Francis C. Barlow 
who spent his boyhood in the town before the beginning of his 
military record, which was one of the most brilliant in the 
history of the war. Mr. Curtis lived in Concord for two years, 
and she is proud to claim him also as a native, and he looks back 
upon his village life with great pleasure, and is always glad to 
visit the town. 

Mr. George Keyes was chairman of the committee wliich so 
successfully carried out the details of the great centennial cel- 
ebration, a full account of which has been published. 

The next field is the battle ground owned by the Buttrick 
family, with the monuments and the Manse fully described 
in another place. After leaving the boundaries of the Buttrick 
farm we pass under a handsome low stone bridge designed by 



J 



THE RIVER AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 153 

Hiram W. Blaisdell, Esq., and enter on the race course, quarter of 
a mile long, in which every 4th of Jul}^ the village races are held. 

Half a mile below are the meadows of Minot Pratt, so full of 
sweet surprises with which his love for all growing things 
prompted him to adorn his beloved river. The yellow Iris, the 
Marcillia, Quadrifolia, the Trappa Natans, and other botanical 
curiosities greet the astonished botanist as he goes on through 
the horse shoe curves to Dakin's Hill and its noble oak, the 
living beacon of the river, to pine crowned Ball's Hill called by 
Thoreau the '' St. Ann's of Concord Voyageurs." 

Going up the Sudbury river, on the right is Lee's hill, on the 
river side of which C. Henry Hurd, Esq., and his enterprising 
brother, (who has done so jiiuchto improve the town) are laying 
out fine house lots, which, when a new bridge is built, will 
doubtless form the West End of Concord. It is the plan of 
these gentlemen to place their lots within the reach of all who 
will agree to build on them houses worth}^ of the location, and 
there is certainly a need of new houses in Concord, for many 
look forward to its quiet life with its simple tastes as a Mecca 
for their declining years. Opposite is the handsome house ofR. 
N. Rice, who after conducting large railroad interests, has re- 
turned to his native village in affluence. 

The old liouse and splendid garden of the late Moses Pritchard, 
Esq., for years a sheriff of the county and an lionored and respect- 
ed citizen is next on the left bank, and the estates of Hon. Samuel 
Hoar and his son Judge E. R. Hoar, alread}^ described, betw^een 
which is the estate of Calvin C. Damon, Esq., a successful and 
highly esteemed manufacturer. Next beyond the estate of the 



154 



THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 



late J. M. Cheney is that of Frederic Hudson, the former editor 
of the New York Herald, whose knowledge of the shipping of 
that port, and on many literary matters was never surpassed, 
and whose contributions to literature were many and varied, and 
whose character exerted grea-t influence over the community 
wlio loved and depended upon him. Rev. Mr. Reynolds estate 
comes next on the river, which is thickly settled along its left 
bank for half a mile with pleasant homes one of which is occu- 




MR. F, B. SANBORN'S HOUSE, LEE's HILL. 

pied by F. INI. Holland the scholar and author. Great credit is 
due to Mr. W. F. Hurd for the energy and skill by which he 
has converted the waste places along the river into comfortable 
and picturesque estates. j\Ir. Sanborn's new house is at tlie 
bend opposite the old home of Simon Willard, one of the found- 
ers of the town. 

After passing under the Stone Bridge and the old South 
Bridge, where a guard was placed on the day of the Fight, and 
near which arc the Wood and Hosmer houses previously de- 



THE RIVER AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 155 

scribed, the next land on the left is that of the Middlesex 
Agricultural Society ; adjoining which Is the extensive farm of 
the lion. II. F. French, formerly a distinguished lawyer in pa- 
tent and other great cases, a Judge of the Courts of New 
Hampshire, and a prominent writev on Agricultural and otlier 
subjects, having -been President of the Agricultural College of 
]Mass. He is at present Assistant Secretary of the Treasur\', an 
office which he has held with marked ability under two admin- 
istrations. 

After passing the French and Hubbard farms the river winds 
along through green meadows for two miles, by Heath's swamp 
so rich in botany, to the beautiful cliffs which give a hint of 
grandeur to the placid loveliness of the river. At ^Nlartlia's 
Point, Avhere the rare milk weed grows, and the Fall picnics fill 
tlie air w^itli tlie steam of boiling corn and roasting potatoes, 
Fairhaven bay gradually widens out into a great lake, covering 
an area of over seventy acres. 

On the left side of the bay is Baker Farm celebrated in song 
and prose by Emerson, Thoreau, Channing and Lathrop, above 
which is INIount Miser}-. Opposite is Conantum tlie crown of the 
river, the place beloved of Thoreau and his disciples, and by the 
many picnic devotees from far and near who have climbed its 
cliffs, lunched under its great pines, or sentimentalized on Sunset 
Rock from which for miles the windings of the river can be 
traced past Mine Hill and Lee's Bridge to Bound Rock where 
four towns join. 

As no account of Concord river would be complete without 
mention of the annual fourth of July festival which originated 



156 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 

upon it, we copy from the Wide Awake Magazine an account of 
the 

CARNIVAL OF THE BOATS. 

'' At the appointed time the bridges and banks were covered 
with anxions spectators, as the boats promptly assembled and 
took their appointed places in the line. On they came, down the 
open Sudbury and from beneath the leafy arches of the Assabet 
where the great hemlocks reach over to see their reflections in 
the black water. 

"Mr. J. L. Gilmore had been selected as marshal, and meeting 
liis aids in their light wherries or birch canoes, he led off the 
glittering train promptly and without confusion. The new 
moon was fortunately obscured by a heavy cloud, and dense 
blackness lumg over the river until the procession drew near 
when sky and water were lighted up with ten thousand rain- 
bows. Many of tlie hirge boats carried lanterns of red and 
green hung over the bow, close to the water. All had high 
frames from which Chinese lanterns of many hues dangled and 
danced with the motion of the oars. 

" One graceful Whitehall boat was ornamented in truly Jaj^an- 
ese style, as a long bamboo rod projected from stem to stern 
hung with lanterns of graduated sizes. One blue and white 
dory was adorned with twenty-seven brilliant lanterns, and was 
rowed by a young lady, while the owner sat in the bow and 
burned gold fire in a large pan. A great black and yellow dory 
bore a huge transparency representing the old bridge and the 



THE RIVER AND ITS HURROUNDIXGS. 157 

Liberty Bell, while a neat boat from tlie ITudsoii had a great 
crj'Stal shield with appropriate deviee. The cedar wherry, the 
pride of the river, was as graceftd as ever in its adornineiit, and 
the boats from the Xoith Bridge, were perfectly gorgeons with 
lanterns of gelatine and paper, Roman candles and brilliant fires 
of many hues. The place of honor in the front was, however, 
allotted to a low white boat having a handsome boy in costume 
at the bow, and a lovely blonde from the South at the helm, 
with tri-colored gelatine lanterns surrounding her fair head. 

"Thus led, they glide solemnly under the dark bridge and 
turn around a sharp bend till they see in surprise the bridge 
between the two monuments appear in lines of colored light, 
as its graceful outlines have been closely decorated by lanterns 
of many kinds ; and as the marshal's boat passes under it, 
a volley of rockets spring up from Honeysuckle island, and 
fireworks of varied kinds follow until the long array of boats 
has countermarched through the new stone bridge, and as- 
sembled in a crlitterino" crowd below the INIinute Man which 
stands out from the darkness in its wondrous strength and 
grace, by the fitful glare of the changing light. 

" The spectators who crowd the high banks on each side pro- 
nounce the spectacle unsurpassed by anything they have seen, 
as at a little distance the boats are only distinguished by the 
outlines of light, and the reflections above and below seem to 
blend together in rainbows." 



L 




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